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...7.' <s <, '...• ^0* % .. 



THE BOY ANGLERS 




MEXICAN JOE AND HIS BIG SHARK. 



THE BOY ANGLERS 

THEIR ADVENTURES 
IN THE GULF OF MEXICO, CALIFORNIA, 
THE PACIFIC AND ATLANTIC OCEANS, AND 
THE LAKES AND STREAMS OF CANADA 



BY 

CHARLES FREDERICK HOLDER 

AUTHOR OF ALONG THE FLORIDA REEF, BIG GAME FISHES, THE 
ADVENTURES OF TORQUA, LIFE OF LOUIS AGASSIZ, ETC. 




D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
NEW YORK MCMIV 



TVvo Anntes RfmMved 

SEP 20 1904 

CLASS ^ XXo. Na 
COPY B 



Copyright, 1904, by 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



Published Scptcmher, IdOlf 



PREFACE 



Few lovers of the legitimate and manly sports and 
pastimes stand so near to nature as the anglers — those 
happy boys, old and young, who go a-fishing and match 
their skill, delicate rods and lines against the clever game 
fishes which, if the angler is a true sportsman, have all 
the advantage. The results to such a boy are not num- 
bers, nor pounds, but a fair bag, the memory of charm- 
ing days in the forest, hours wading down some musical 
stream, where the leaves rustle in the soft wind and 
whisper secrets which he understands ; where the swirl 
of the waters tells its gentle story, and where the air is 
laden with the rich perfume of the woods. These are 
among the legitimate catches of the rod fisherman, and 
the creel full of memories is drawn upon and slowly 
emptied on many a winter night. 

In the present volume I have told the angling stories 
of some real boys— not figures of the imagination- 
boys who have taken the tarpon, the silvery acrobat of 



vi PREFACE 

the Mexican Gulf; who have played the leaping tuna 
from one to six hours, and brought it to gafF in right 
royal fashion with rod and thread-like line ; boys who 
have taken the salmon in fresh water and salt, the 
ouananiche, the grayling, trout, bass and ten-pounder. 

Some of these boys I knew and fished with, and one 
I know better than all the rest, who here in grateful ac- 
knowledgment remembers the " Commodore," the old 
and well-loved martinet who shaped his early ideas of 
what constituted fair sport, and who stood for all that 
was honorable in the field of angling, on one of the 
greatest of the American fishing grounds. While this 
is a story of actual adventure, my young readers may 
read between the lines that it is also an appeal for a 
game that can not speak for itself, an appeal for every 
young angler to stand by the game laws and establish the 
fashion of fair play to the fishes. While the volume is 
in no sense a compendium on angling, I have indicated 
in the various chapters the methods and tackle employed 
by many of the most successful anglers, and have de- 
scribed many grounds in the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of 
Mexico and Canada where boys have found good fish- 
ing and happy days. 

C. F. H. 

Pasadena, Cal. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 
I. 



PART I 

ANGLING ON THE PACIFIC COAST 



The Tackle-Den 
n. — The Island Camp . 
ni. — A High Jumper 
rV. — Fishing in an Ocean Forest 
V. — A Day with Yellowtail 
VI. — Towed Three Miles 
VII. — Something About Fishes . 



PAGE 

3 
20 
29 

50 
82 

TOO 
117 



PART II 

ANGLING IN THE GULF OF MEXICO 

VIII. — In the Tarpon Country 
IX. — A Texas Jewfish .... 
X. — The Ten-Pounder .... 

PART III 
ANGLING IN FLORIDA 

XI. — In the Wake of the Amber Fish . 
XII. — On the Indian River 
XIIl. — Fishing in the Surf 

vii 



141 

162 

173 



189 

201 
218 



Vlll 



CONTENTS 



PART IV 



ON THE ST. LAWRENCE AND ELSEWHERE 



CHAPTER 

XIV. 



The Delight Makers 
XV. — Taking the Muskallunge 
XVI. — The Ouananiche 
XVII. — With the Pacific Coast Trout 
XVIII. — Salmon Fishing 



PAGE 

256 
265 

288 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Mexican Joe and his big shark. 


PAGE 

Frontispiece 


A pet horned toad 




lO 


The pet humming-bird . 








II 


A gopher and his underground nest 
Nest of Cahfornia bushtit 








12 
13 


Tackle-box .... 








14 


Drinking-cup 








15 


Rod-case .... 








16 


Boy Anglers of Avalon . 

The camping place. Arch Rock Ca 

The tuna boats of Santa Catalina 


fion 






24 
30 


Tuna bait. California flying-fish 








32 


The leaping tuna . 

Record boys' catch of leaping tuna 

A jelly-fish .... 








35 
47 
52 


Sea-anemones .... 








53 


Crabs of the kelp beds . 
Hermit-crab .... 








54 
55 


The Portuguese man-of-war . 
Thresher shark 








58 
67 


Lamp-shells hooked up at Santa Catalina 






68 


The remora .... 








69 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



An active jelly-fish 

The record boys' catch of black sea-bass 

California quail .... 

A giant spider .... 

Giant water-bug with eggs on its back 

Shooting flying-fish at Santa Catahna 

The record boys' catch of yellowtail 

Sea-slugs of the kelp beds 

Rock-boring shells . 

Tame gulls of Santa Catalina 

Salt-water sunfish and young 

The leaping whale 

A first lesson 

Ocean scenery 

A walking fish 

External parts of a fish 

Tails . 

An ancient fish 

Garpike 

Dissection of a bony fish, the trout (Salmo) 

Skeleton of a fish . 

The four-eyed fish 

Some flat fishes 

The angler . 

A luminous fishing-rod 

Black swallower 

Fish-eggs and young 

Some poisonous fishes 

Swordfishes . 

A nest-building stickle-back 

Pilot-fish and chimsera . 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



XI 



The author and a tarpon. Aransas, Texas 




157 


Mullet, tarpon bait 




. 160 


Catfish 






174 


Sandpipers ..... 






182 


Hawkbill turtle .... 






183 


Cocoanut palms on Florida Keys 






194 


A coral garden " . 






195 


Cougars treed by peccaries 






199 


Mangrove trees on Florida Keys 






202 


Captain Gagger's schooner 






203 


The mouse-fish .... 






204 


Batfish 






. 206 


Florida manatee .... 






209 


Florida alHgators . . , . 






216 


Hauling in a large seine 






225 


Ancient fish hooks 






226 


Silk enameled lines showing exact sizes 






235 


Fish hooks ...... 






236 


A good fly . 






237 


Fish basket . . . . ' . 






238 


Felt-lined leader box 






238 


% Cod hook used as gafi^ . 






240 


Some fresh-water fishes . 






241 


The black bass 






242 


Some knots ..... 






243 


The leap ...... 






245 


The pickerel ..... 






247 


The rock bass ..... 






248 


The yellow perch 






249 


The landing net ..... 






250 


The bass leaps ..... 






252 



Xll 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Spinner and minnow 




• 253 


The whippoorwill .... 




. 254 


Spoon or spinner ready for use 




• 257 


Spoons of various sizes . 




. 258 


The muskallunge and pike compared 




. 263 


The Canadian camp 




. 266 


The bed 




. 267 


Supper ..... 




. 268 


Ouananiche pool .... 




269 


It dashed into the air . 




. 271 


A string of ouananiche . 




. 272 


Head of rainbow trout {^Salmo irideus) with gil] 


cover 


turned back to show the breathing organs 


• 275 


Fried trout ...... 


. 276 


The string ...... 


. 276 


The releaser for cutting branches 


. 278 


The Cahfornia camp . . . . . 


. 279 


Brown trout ...... 


. 281 


Lake trout ...... 


. 281 


Brook trout ...... 


. 282 


A vista in the trout stream 


. 283 


The ducks were flying south . 


. 286 


Where the Monterey salmon gather . 


. 288 


Atlantic salmon ..... 


. 289 


Pacific salmon ..... 


. 289 


Labrador salmon leaping an eighteen-foot fall 


. 291 


Curved jaw of male salmon at spawning t 


ime 


. 292 



PART I 
ANGLING ON THE PACIFIC COAST 



CHAPTER I 

THE TACKLE-DEN 

There was something in the wind — there was no 
question about that. It was not the perfume from the 
mass of heliotrope which climbed the wall, fascinating 
scores of humming-birds and butterflies. It was not 
the burden which the soft " trade " brought from the 
violet-beds as it swept along ; indeed, no one could tell 
what it was, no one but an old man with a very comical 
red face, who stood amid a circle of roses, with head 
hfted like a hound scenting its game. One hand was 
held to his ear, as though listening ; while with the 
other he raised a big pink-lipped conch-shell to his 
mouth and blew a mighty blast. Out boomed the 
strange sound again ; and as it died away, to the relief 
of the countless birds of the garden, two boys, breath- 
less and excited, rushed into the circle, almost knocking 
him over. 

" Whist ye ! " said the old man in a quaint brogue, 
half Scotch, half Irish ; " whist ! " raising his hand to 
command attention. 

The bovs stopped and listened. A mocking-bird on 
the roof scolded at them loudly. The house-finches 



4 THE BOY ANGLERS 

caroled and sang on, and the great eucalyptus-plumes 
which towered aloft, sighed and rustled in the soft wind- 
drowsy and gentle music — that was all. 

" What is it, Robert ? " cried the oldest boy. " I 
don't hear anything, I don't see anything. Why did 
you call ? " 

" D'ye know what day it is, lad ? " answered the old 
man, not relaxing his listening attitude or the tense ex- 
pression of his face. 

" Why, the first of May," was the reply. 

" And what goes with the first of May ? " asked the 
old sea-dog, for he was one, dyed in the wool and re- 
tired after many honors and experiences. " Ye give it 
up, eh ? Well, well. Why, it's the fishin'. Can't ye 
smell it, lads ? The fever's in the air and comin' down 
the wind from the sea. List to that," and he held out 
the old conch ; " clap yer ear to that." 

Jack took the shell and forthwith held it to his ear. 

" Now, sir, what d'ye hear comin' down the wind ? " 

" I hear," replied Jack, trying to look preternatu- 
rally grave and closing his eyes, " I hear the roaring of 
the deep sea." 

" Aye," said the old man ; " what then ? " 

" I hear the moaning of the wind." 

" Aye, and what then .? " 

cc I hear " 

" Well, blither and shakes ! What d'ye hear, Mr. 
Jack ? Sure ye're deaf as a tailor's goose, for I smell 
it ; it's in the air," and taking the shell he again placed 



THE TACKLE-DEN 5 

it against his ear, his face becoming at once illumined 
with expressions comical and grave. " I hear the yaller- 
tails a-bitin' along shore ; and bonito — yes, I'm sure 
that was bonito," he added, shifting the conch to the 
other ear. " And what's this ? " pretending to catch a 
difficult message. " Sartin. Yer father's to take us all 
a-fishin' if my rheumatism's willin'; yes, that's it, if my 
rheumatism's willin'," and the old sailor lowered the 
shell and glanced at his companions, who, as he said, had 
shipped with him in early days and learned all they knew 
about fishing and sailing under his tutelage. 

" You don't mean it, Robert ! " and the boys rushed 
upon him and grasped his big horny hands. 

" But I do," replied the old mariner, pulled into the 
circle as the boys joined hands and danced, dragging 
him around in a frantic ring-around-a-rosy in which he 
joined as far as he could, singing as he pranced," Heave 
O ! the gallant fishers that ye are ; heave O ! the gallant 
fishers that ye are ! " stopping suddenly as he caught 
sight of a lady and gentleman standing by, laughing 
heartily. 

" The fishing-fever when it comes down the wind 
appears to be good for the gout, Robert," said the 
latter. 

" It does luk that way, sir," replied the old man ; 
then aside, " them boys'Il be the death of me yet." 

" It's true, then, that we're to have a fishing-trip to 
the islands ? " asked Jack. 

" The Commodore is the town-crier of this ranch," 



6 THE BOY ANGLERS 

his father repHed. " We go to-morrow ; that is, if you 
can get ready." 

" Get ready ! " both boys exclaimed ; then turning 
and rushing after the old sailor, who had limped into the 
flower-covered ranch-house to conceal his confusion at 
being caught dancing a hornpipe over so simple a matter 
as the arrival of the spring fishing. 

" What'll yer lady mother think, seein' an old salt 
duffer the like o' me dancin' an' caracolin', an' me with 
a game leg at that ? " he said as the boys appeared. But 
they were too convulsed with laughter to reply. Every 
year since they were very young the old man had been 
their companion. He had taught them all the arts of 
the sailor; how to sail and rig a boat; how to swim; 
how to use the grains ; how to peg turtles ; how to rig 
rods and lines. The secrets of the stream and lake were 
his as well, and few could cast a fly — wet or dry — or 
skitter a live bait, or wield a two-handed salmon-rod 
with more skill than the old boatman, whose real name 
was Robert Busby, and who, better known as the Com- 
modore, taught certain boys their first lessons in the 
angler's and boatman's art. A marvelous tyrant at 
times ; always insisting on an absolute man-o'-war's man- 
like discipline ; concealing a heart as tender as a woman's 
beneath a rugged and often fierce exterior, he was a 
character who despised trickery, demanded the severest 
ethics in all matters of sport, as became gentlemen, and 
was the " Commodore " to all the boys within reach. 
Every spring, with great regularity, the Commodore was 



THE TACKLE-DEN 7 

taken with the fishing-fever. As he said, it generally 
came down the wind or over the mountains, and was so 
infectious that in a short time the entire household was 
down with it. Just exactly when it came, or how, the 
Commodore did not know ; but he usually noticed it in 
Southern California when the roses were at their best ; 
when the Gold of Ophir covered the housetops with a 
golden mantle, when the Banksia fell in gold and silver 
showers, and the air was redolent with the perfume of a 
thousand flowers, and the big leaves of the Amazon lily 
in the ranch-pond were at their best ; then, as if in- 
fected by the incense of it all, the Commodore became 
restless, " took on a fever for the sea or mountains," as 
he said, the current of which was only stayed by a trip 
to the many fishing-grounds of the coast, an actual cure 
being effected only after he had landed sundry large 
game-fishes. The boys had noticed that the mood often 
came upon their companion suddenly, and had vainly 
endeavored to penetrate the mystery of how the fishing- 
fever " came down the wind." 

The old sailor had a favorite seat beneath a group of 
two varieties of pines, and he was often observed sitting 
seemingly asleep but in reality listening intently. Some- 
times the boys would join him. " Listen ! " the old 
sailor would say. From far away would come a low 
murmur of infinite sweetness, like the chime of bells a 
long way off, increasing in tone and quality until it was 
like the roar of the sea that passed on, dying away like 
the clash of waves far down the beach. Then it would 



THE TACKLE-DEN 9 

come again, sweetly as the touch of some giant i^olian 
harp clanging like bells — bells in the forest, bells near 
by, bells over the divide, ringing, growing, coming on 
sweetly down the wind — always down the wind — to blend 
with the louder tones and melodies that swept unseen 
through the perfume-laden air of this Southern Califor- 
nian garden. The boys firmly believed that the old man 
caught his fishing-fever from this source, as he claimed 
to understand what the sounds meant ; yet it was only 
the trade-wind sobbing through the group of pines, 
making music by the clashing of their needles — sounds 
which were interpreted by the old sailor, as he did the 
message of the conch-shell, as the cry of the distant 
ocean or the voice of some swirling brook as it found its 
way along the high Sierras to be lost in the distant sea. 

The Commodore was a rough old seaman and pre- 
tended to be very matter-of-fact and practical, yet he 
was played many tricks bv a romantic, indeed poetic, 
strain in his nature that flowed, a big wide humanizing 
river, down his uneventful life. 

The room into which the bovs followed their com- 
panion was one to delight the eye of any boy with a love 
for sport. It was their den, and had grown under the 
direction of their father, who was an enthusiastic angler, 
until it was literally an angler's den, pure and simple. 
On the walls hung rods of all kinds — many retired old 
butts, broken in hard contests, gaffs that had been in at 
the death of many a monster fish, belts, rifles, shot- 
guns, while creels suggested trout, and the big non-mul- 



lo THE BOY ANGLERS 

tiplying reel with brass trimmings told of salmon and 
its kind. In a case of drawers were fly-hooks of all de- 
scriptions, one drawer containing hooks for sea fishing, 
from a number seven O'Shaughnessy to small fly-hooks 
for bait. Then there were rolls of wires for making 
leaders, and a vise and pincers suggested that the boys 
made them. A canvas bag held lead sinkers. There 
were round ones ranging in size from shot up to marbles, 
all cut so that they could be slipped on to a line at a 
moment's notice. Others were pipe sinkers for trolling, 
and various shapes and sizes suggested bottom fishing. 
Another drawer contained fittings in German silver for 
rods, rings, agate tips and leaders, silver caps for rods 
and pieces for fitting extra tips, so easy to break. In 




A pet horned toad. 

fact, in this magic and fascinating case was kept nearly 
everything that an angler devoted to the sport would 
need in a season's fishing. 

The boys had a number of interesting pets. There 



THE TACKLE-DEN ii 

were several horned toads, or lizards, lying in the win- 
dows basking in the sun ; strange little creatures covered 
with spines, yet perfectly harmless ; and as Jack and 
Tom moved about the room they were followed by two 




The pet humming-bird. 

tame humming-birds that alighted on their hands or 
heads, came when they were called, and displayed an 
amount of confidence in them more than remarkable. 
Outside one of the windows a tame sparrow-hawk 
perched on a branch arranged for his comfort, with 
which the boys proposed to experiment with falconry ; 
and down by the pond, with its pond-lilies and giant 
leaves of Victoria Regia, were various birds which had 
been domesticated, while in the water were sticklebacks 
which built nests, and a school of wonderful triple-tail 
Japanese goldfishes, so tame that they rose and fed 



12 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



from the hands of their owners. In a small enclosure 
Tom had a tame gopher — the pest of the California 
farmer and garden-maker — which he had trained after a 

/ 




A gopher and his underground nest. 

fashion. It had a glass house so that Tom could study 
the peculiar nest and tunnel it formed underground. 

The old garden which the Commodore loved so 
well had been arranged to encourage the birds to nest 
there, and the boys had placed seats where with a field- 
glass they could watch the nest-building and the birds 



THE TACKLE-DEN 



13 



feeding their young. They provided them with cotton, 
strings, and various building material, as weW as thread 




Nest of California bushtit. 



H 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



for the oriole that tried to sew up the big leaves of an 
Abyssinian banana. There were several nests of ori- 
oles in the garden, others of the humming-birds, and the 
long, soft, pendulous nest of the bushtit was an especial 
prize and never disturbed. 

The orders were given and without waste of time 
the boys began their preparations. Each possessed a 
leather tackle-box about eighteen inches in length, made 
for the purpose, compact and 
snug. In it was a tuna-reel, 
to be used also for black sea- 
bass and tarpon. This was of 
the size known as "tuna " and 
easily held six hundred feet of 
number twenty-one cuttyhunk 
line. The reels were of rubber 
and German silver, as carefully 
made as a watch. This tuna-reel rested in its special 
leather box with a chamois lining in a compartment in 
the center, and by it, each in a compartment, were two 
other reels ; one for yellowtail, holding three hundred 
feet of number twenty-one line— this for fishes up to 
fifty pounds in weight. Another held two hundred and 
fifty feet of number twelve, or a smaller line. This 
was intended for rock-bass, and was virtually a black- 
bass reel, though used for sea-fishes. In other compart- 
ments were various articles used in sea fishing. Among 
the hooks were a dozen Van Vlecks — silver-tinted tuna- 
hooks, with leaders of wire seven feet in length ; these 




Tackle-box. 



THE TACKLE-DEN 



in three or more joints, each joint connected by a stout 
brass swivel. There were also a dozen number seven 
O'Shaughnessy hooks with ten-inch wire leaders and 
swivels for yellowtail and white sea-bass ; another dozen 
number eight O'Shaughnessy, with shorter and finer 
leaders, for rock-bass, and an assortment of small hooks 
of various kinds for small fishes down even to those for 
small mackerel and minnows ; a ball of fine copper wire 
to wind the mouth of the bait-fish to prevent it from 
twisting unnaturally ; a spool of silk, a pair of pincers, 
a good serviceable knife in a leather scabbard, two extra 
lines, one a number twelve and one an eighteen cutty- 
hunk. There were no large lines in this outfit, as the 
Commodore held that all there is in angling consisted 
in taking the largest fishes with a 
thread of a line ; in a word, it . is not 
sportsmanlike to use a line so large 
that the fish will have no chance to 
escape. There was a convenient set 
of miniature tools — all of which were 
packed in a handle for taking the reel 
apart, a flat file for sharpening hooks, 
a patent tight oiler for hooks, reels 
and leaders, drmking-cup, and thumb- 
stalls of rubber, and cord for braking the line with the 
left hand, a compass and other articles, all cleverly 
stowed away in the fishing-box. 

Then came the rods, not expensive, but very attract- 
ive and pliable. They were mostly of greenheart, with 




Drinking-cup. 



i6 THE BOY ANGLERS 

German silver mountings, and each boy had three. One 
for tuna was about seven feet long, made of noibwood — 
a South American greenheart ; the tip about five feet 
long; the butt of rubber, short, mounted with German 
silver, with a solid German-silver reel-seat ; the big 
trumpet-silver guides were in a double row, so that the 
line would run perfectly free, and the tip had a polished 
agate. There was nothing cheap or poorly made about 
this rod, and it represented the savings from allowances 
for many weeks. Before this the boys had used rods of 
their own manufacture. Rod number two was of green- 
heart, eight and a half feet in length, in three pieces, the 




ij^^^^^fcj,^ ^^/. 



Rod-case. 

rigging or equipment being the same. This was for 
fishes which range from ten to sixty pounds in weight, 
as yellowtail, white sea-bass, albacore, etc. The third 
rod was nine feet in length, slender and pliable, weighing 
twelve ounces — a little heavier than is used for black 
bass, and was intended for the rock-bass, white and 
other fishes from two to eight pounds. All these rods 
were finely polished, the openings plugged with cork, the 
joints well oiled, and the silver kept bright, as the Com- 
modore had a regular inspection of rods once a month 
the year around. Each had its cloth case, and the three 
fitted into a leather case, or rod-trunk, upon which was 



THE TACKLE-DEN 17 

painted the name and address of the owner, so that it 
could be carried or checked as the case might be. Ready 
to be strapped to the rods was a fine hinged gaff, the 
hook being strong rather than fancy, its sharp point 
protected by a cork. With these articles went a com- 
fortable-looking Mexican basket, used for lunch. 

All these articles the boys took out and spread upon 
a table. The reels were carefully taken apart, each por- 
tion oiled and cleaned ; the joints of the rods looked to 
and oiled, so that they would push together without 
" screwing." Hook-points were examined and touched 
up with the small file, and in such excellent condition 
were the various articles kept that the entire outfit was 
in readiness that evening, and when the boys' father 
came out to make the inspection he found everything in 
order. He had long before provided each of his sons 
with the major part of the outfit, believing it to be an 
admirable adjunct to his plan of physical training, with 
the understanding that it should be kept in the best con- 
dition and replenished out of their allowance ; and with 
care they found that the only necessary additions in two 
years were hooks which in some way the big game would 
take. 

" You are all ready, then ? *' said the Angler, watch- 
ing the eager movements of the boys. 

" Aye, aye, sir," responded the Commodore ; " ready 
and fit, sir, ready for any game that can be taken with a 
rod ; that is, if we have luck, sir." 

" Ah, but you have your luck right here." 



i8 THE BOY ANGLERS 

" Where ? " asked the younger boy, looking around 
as though expecting to see " luck " flying in at the win- 
dow. 

" Good luck is merely another name for method," 
replied his father, " care of tackle, good selection, and the 
best of everything, and what is more, strict and undivided 
attention. If you will point out to me the angler who 
is careless, a sluggard, who is indolent, I will show you 
the man who has poor or at least indifferent luck. At 
the very moment of landing, his old rusty leader breaks 
and the fish escapes ; and it is always the biggest fellow 
that goes in this way. Again a fierce fish makes a ter- 
rific run. Your careless angler did not suppose so much 
line would be used, and that neglected knot appears ; it 
catches on the tip and the line parts after he has played 
his fish half an hour. If he had cut out the knot and 
had joined the line by splicing, he would have landed his 
fish. Another day his reel, that has not been oiled for 
two months, refuses to work ; it protests against such 
usage, and again the line gives way and three hundred 
feet goes. You will notice a chronic bend in the rod of 
such a man ; he is too lazy to reverse his line ; and so I 
might go on, showing that this bad luck which we hear 
so much about, is often due to careless methods, and 
good luck the result of the reverse." 

" But how is it," queried Jack, " that when the Com- 
modore and I have been fishing side by side with the 
very same tackle and bait he has often caught the most 
fish ? He claims it as luck." 



THE TACKLE-DEN 19 

" I cannot answer that positively," said his father 
laughing, " but if I were to guess, I should say that he 
had the best of the situation. You were trolling and the 
fish were coming up astern, following the chum prob- 
ably. You had seventy-five feet of line out, and I 
venture to say Robert, who had all the luck, or most of 
it, had one hundred feet out, or his bait twenty-five feet 
astern of you ; and it was the first to be overhauled by 
the fish. Make your lines and bait even, and the luck 
will be divided. As a rule, the longest line has the most 
strikes in trolling. How is that, Robert ? " asked the 
Angler, a mischievous twinkle in his eye. 

" I'm sorra, sir, ye gave that secret awa," said the 
old sailor gravely ; " I sort o' resarved that holt o' the 
lads. It's a vera penetratin' angler ye are, sir, beggin' 
yer pardon." 



CHAPTER II 

THE ISLAND CAMP 

Every one on Manzanita Ranch saw the sun rise on 
the following morning, and by seven o'clock, when 
every leaf and blossom still trembled beneath its load of 
moisture, when the air was heavy with perfume as yet 
not dissipated by the sluggish trade, the stepping-block 
in front of the ranch-house was heaped with luggage, 
suggestive of an outing — rods, guns, grips, bundles which 
looked like canvas hammocks, lashed man-of-war style, 
and behind all stood Busby, the Commodore, a trifle 
redder, a little jollier, a shade more comical than usual. 
He wore a large Panama sombrero and a complete suit 
of hunting canvas, the coat of which appeared to be a 
maze of pockets, each of which was so well filled that 
the Commodore's angular figure seemed lost ; indeed, he 
appeared to be blown up like a balloon. The boys wore 
their fishing-clothes, woolen suits, knickerbockers, and 
low canvas shoes which " held " on slippery decks and 
could be easily kicked off' if the wearer went overboard, 
as anglers have been known to do before now. 

The boys were taking account of their luggage, Jack, 
at his father's request, acting as quartermaster of the trip 

20 



THE ISLAND CAMP 21 

and having a list of everything which he checked off at 
the various changes. The horses now came up, fol- 
lowed by a small baggage-wagon, and the party, the two 
boys, their father and mother and the Commodore, with 
several fox-terriers and a greyhound, were presently on 
their way to the station. Manzanita Ranch was on the 
slope of the San Gabriel Valley, about thirty miles from 
the ocean, and from its highest point, twenty-five or 
thirty miles out to sea, could be seen the peaks of two 
high mountains, a range on the island of Santa Catalina — 
a mountain range at sea — one of a group which reaches 
from San Clemente Island, opposite San Juan Capistrano, 
to Santa Barbara. Catalina is a famous fishing-ground, 
the feeding and spawning ground of all the great game- 
fishes of the region. Here is the only spot in the world 
where the leaping tuna has been taken with the rod ; the 
home of the yellowtail, the white sea-bass, and many 
more. The island is a maze of mountains, twenty-two 
miles long, and to the boys it was a wonderland, a sort 
of angling paradise. Everywhere the coast of the island 
is cut with deep canons which come down to the sea 
like rivers wmding down, forming little bays, often en- 
vironed by lofty cliffs. Indeed, Santa Catalina appears 
like a mountain range that has suddenly been transported 
by the slave of the lamp from some mysterious land and 
dropped into the Pacific. It is an enigma to all who 
visit it, as the winter Is the time when the island is rich 
In greens, when the wild flowers run riot, and days of 
sunshine follow one another in regular order. 



22 THE BOY ANGLERS 

Little wonder that the boys looked forward to the 
trip with anticipations of delight. The spring had come, 
the islands were still green, and by every sign the game 
was awaiting them. From Pasadena the train was taken, 
passing through Los Angeles to San Pedro, where the 
steamer for the island was boarded — a run of nearly 
thirty miles. At noon they glided into the little bay of 
Avalon with its rocky sentinels, its placid waters, its fleet 
of glass-bottom and fishing boats. Here they outfitted, 
for the party was to go into camp in the mouth of one 
of the canons a few miles up the rocky coast. A launch 
about twenty feet in length, the Torqua, was chartered 
by the angler, and two boatmen, Mexican Joe and John- 
nie Graley — good boatmen and cooks — had been secured 
in advance. The tents and complete outfit were ar- 
ranged for in a marvelously short time from the store- 
house of a tent city which took shape at Avalon in 
summer. The outfit required was read off by the Com- 
modore and the men brought it out piece by piece : one 
tent eight by ten for the boys, flooring ready for setting, 
matting for floor and sides, two tin pitchers, and toilet 
outfit, two cots, mattresses and pillows, a mirror, in fact 
every article needed in a summer camp was provided, 
produced like magic. There was a tent and outfit for 
the boatmen, one large tent and appliances for Mr. and 
Mrs. Temple, a dining tent with table, chairs and dishes. 
All this was for rent, and by the middle of the afternoon 
it was stowed in a large flatboat and two small skiflFs 
fast behind the Torqua. Mr. Temple had bought pro- 



THE ISLAND CAMP 23 

visions, hams, canned vegetables, flour, butter, bacon, 
and the many articles which suggested themselves to the 
camper, but as they were to be within an hour's run of 
the town their supply was limited. Nearly every day 
the launch would visit Avalon, where supplies could be 
obtained. -In a word, the camp was more civilized than 
the boys found later in the heart of the Northern and 
Eastern forests. 

At three o'clock the whistle of the launch sounded, 
the Commodore shouted gruffly, as became a commodore, 
"All aboard ! " and Joe added "All ashore that's goin','* 
routing out several small boys, the young anglers with 
which the dock was crowded. Then Johnnie at the 
wheel rang the bell, the engine breathed, coughed, gasped, 
objecting as gasoline engines will when they are not in 
good humor, and the launch went foaming out of the 
bay along the rugged coast of the island. The canon 
selected for the camp was a titanic rift eaten out of the 
rock by the rains of centuries. The very mountains had 
been washed into the sea, converted into sand until the 
result was a broad deep canon which wouna up to a lofty 
mountain 2,200 feet high, named Black Jack, a rocky 
sentinel that was an island mark for fifty miles away. 
As the caiion ascended it divided into lateral branches, 
and the verdure took the form of trees. At the sea it 
broadened out, forming a level space several hundred 
yards square from which the bush and shrub-covered 
sides of thecafion rose precipitously, walling it in. The 
shore of white sand and pebbles was crescent shaped, 



THE ISLAND CAMP 



25 



and afForded a good landing, while the water deepened 
gradually, making a good anchorage. In the center of 
the canon was a spring, and on the north side a group 
of fine Cottonwood trees, in front of which the launch 
was rounded to and anchored. The men and two 
Mexicans rowed the boat in, quickly landed the tents, 




The camping place. Arch Rock Canon. 

and with amazing rapidity the camp assumed form, 
and before the sun went down the anglers' settlement 
was a thing of fact. The boys with their father's assist- 
ance raised their own tents, the latter's going up first. 
The uprights were raised, the canvas thrown over and 
pegged down, the ready-made floor carried in and the 
cots set up. Jack even making the beds and finishing 



26 THE BOY ANGLERS 

the tent while his mother sat and looked on, laughing at 
his enthusiasm. 

" Jack, suppose now that you really had to make 
beds," she said. 

" Don't suppose it, mother," he replied, " I wouldn't 
do it. It all depends upon the point of view. If you 
had to go fishing, were really obliged to camp out, you 
know you would never do it, but just because it is sport, 
or we call it pleasure, it is delightful, and it is fortunate 
that it is so." 

" First call for dinner ! " shouted Tom, just as the 
moon was coming up, and offering his arm to his mother 
he escorted her over to the dining tent, where they found 
the table fairly groaning with good things. There were 
cold roast beef, boiled potatoes, bacon and hot cakes, 
which Joe was cooking on a mysterious flat piece of iron 
which he had brought. The table was decorated with an 
improvised vase containing a bunch of Mariposa lilies. 
The Commodore and Johnnie, each with white aprons, 
stood smiling and pleased as the lady expressed admira- 
tion at the wonders they had produced in so brief a 
time. 

" What have we for dessert, Johnnie ? " asked Mr. 
Temple. 

" Tomales, sir," was the reply. 

" Tomales for dessert ! " exclaimed Jack. 

'' Yes, sir," said Capt. Johnnie, " it's the fashion up 
this canon." 

Tom burst into laughter at this. " Johnnie lost the 



THE ISLAND CAMP 27 

pies overboard as we were landing," he said ; " that 
makes tomales the fashion." 

After dinner Joe hauled a large log out of the bush 
and built a camp-fire, around which the party sat until 
late, listening to the stories of the men, who now and 
then would stop to run down the beach to catch the 
flying fishes that, driven in by the tunas or white sea 
bass, came sailing blindly onto the shore, striking heav- 
ily, and then trying to beat their way down to the 
sea. The boatmen were both characters in their way, 
and added not a little to the fun and pleasure of the island 
camp. Joe was an " old timer," the oldest inhabitant of 
the island, a Mexican of ancient lineage. It was said by 
some that he traced his ancestry back to the earliest in- 
habitants, but this doubtless was not true, as Joe had led 
all the government expeditions during the past twenty 
years to the ancient graveyards of the island, had ex- 
cavated in innumerable Indian graves, and his picture 
may be seen in the Reports of the Government. A 
diligent search among the thousands of people who know 
Joe would not result in finding one who had ever seen 
him in bad humor, hence he was an ideal camper, and 
when it is added that he was an expert herder, vaquero, 
goat hunter, fisherman, cook, archaeological digger and 
guide who knew every foot of the island, his many vir- 
tues and his value can be appreciated, and doubtless 
would be certified to by his many friends all over this 
country and England. 

Captain Johnnie acquired his title as captain of a 



28 THE BOY ANGLERS 

glass-bottom boat which he rowed up and down the 
mysterious Laminarian forest that made the waters along 
the shore a wonderland ; and his wit and ready tongue 
had made him famous. To hear Capt. Johnnie describe 
the wonders of the deep to a boatload of landsmen and 
women was worth going some distance, and as he im- 
provised as he sailed his craft, there was always variety. 
Specimens and animals changed names daily, and there 
was a succession of wonders, new and startling, when 
Capt. Johnnie was in command. He had left his glass- 
bottom boat to his partner's care, and was now acting as 
cook and handy man of the camp. An original Irish 
character, who, had he been born in the Orient, would 
have been a professional story teller, so rich was his 
imagination, so racy his fables. 



CHAPTER III 

A HIGH JUMPER 

It was impossible not to rise at daybreak at the 
Anglers' Canon. It faced the sea, and as the sun rolled 
up over the distant Sierras it seemed at once to fill the 
canon with a blaze of light. A few moments before its 
appearance the sky would be tinted a deep vermilion, 
then long streamers of light shot upward, and day had 
come. Long before it was light Johnnie Graley was 
up and the odor of crisp bacon, eggs, coffee and hot 
cakes soon permeated the tents of the campers. 

" How many flying fish ? " asked Mr. Temple, at the 
entrance of his tent, struggling with a white sweater. 

" Five, sir," answered Tom, quickly, " and Jack has 
gone aboard the launch as he thinks there are several 
there." 

" Good ! " said his father ; " we should bag at least 
one tuna." 

A few moments later the anglers were seated at 
breakfast. " What are the signs, Joe .? " asked Mr. 
Temple. 

" Fine," replied Joe, piling a small lighthouse of 
cakes on Jack's plate, and a Martello tower of the same 

29 



30 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



on Tom's. " I jest met Vincente's man, Tony, going 
down and he said the tunas were as thick as flies up at 
Long Point." 

This news had the effect of shortening the breakfast, 
and the fishing party hastened to the beach, each with 
rod in hand, and by means of the skiff were transported 
to the launch — a typical tuna-rigged boat found nowhere 




The tuna boats of Santa Catalina. 



but at Santa Catalina and built for the purpose. She was 
a good model, trim, yet differed from the average launch 
seen in the East in being wider, with more beam, and 
was more seaworthy, able to run against almost any sea 
though the waters here were invariably smooth. In the 
forward part was the six horse-power engine, a mast 
with sail, and a canvas hood which could be hauled over 
the bow like an umbrella, keeping off the spray in run- 



A HIGH JUMPER 31 

ning against a seaway. Astern a plank extended across 
from rail to rail, and upon this were two comfortable 
armchairs, side by side, each having on the outer edge 
of the seat a socket for the butt of the rod. The floor- 
ing was covered with canvas, while a deck forward and 
aft afforded ample provision for carrying the big game 
when given its quietus. Just back of the chairs was the 
seat of the engineer and wheelsman, the wheel being on 
the side and parallel to the wall of the hull. Here were 
stored boxes for tackle, and there was room for gaffs and 
spears. Forward was a box for small fish. Such, in 
brief, was the Santa Catalina tuna boat. She had seats 
for two anglers astern and room for several spectators or 
passengers who did not fish ; and if occasion required the 
chairs could be taken down and stowed away and a large 
awning rigged, making the launch a pleasure craft pure 
and simple. 

" All readv, sir," said the punctilious Commodore, 
touching his hat. 

"Cast off! " replied the Angler. And Joe dropped 
the buoy over with the moorings. The Commodore 
gave a turn to the wheel, and the Torqua surged out 
into the beautiful sheet of smooth water in the lee of the 
island, known as the tuna-grounds — a stretch of charm- 
ing coast, but three or four miles in length, the only rod- 
fishing grounds in the world for the leaping tuna. The 
boys occupied the chairs, the Angler sitting with the 
Commodore at the wheel, while Joe, as gaffer, took his 
place in the bow with Johnnie and stood, his strong In- 



32 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



dian face turned seaward, on the alert for signs of game. 
The boys held rods about six and a half feet in length, 
of greenheart, each tip being five feet long with a short 
butt, jointed rods being too uncertain for this sport. 
The line was a number twenty-four cuttyhunk, six hun- 
dred feet long, the big reel being nearly full. Jack 
fished to the starboard, and Tom to port, and as the 






Tuna bait. California flying-fish. 



launch got under way they fastened leader to line with a 
bowline-knot, and looked at the bait to see that it was 
all right. Joe had baited five hooks to have them ready : 
the hook was a bronzed O'Shaughnessy, number seven, 
the leader seven feet of piano-wire in three links, each 
joined by a brass swivel so that the bait would run natu- 
rally. The heavy flying-fish, fourteen inches long, was 



A HIGH JUMPER 33 

hooked upward through the lips, and the mouth had 
been sewed up in order that it would not catch water, 
the object being to make the fish run naturally and not 
twirl and twist. 

Once clear of the rocks the launch was headed for 
Long Point and the bait dropped over, one to the right 
the other to the left, the rods pointing from the quarter 
so that when out, the lines would run well apart and not 
foul. About one hundred feet of line was unreeled, then 
held by the thumb brake, a leather pad fastened to the 
crossbar and pressed upon the line by the thumb. The 
left hand thumb was protected by a knitted thumbstall, 
used to press the line upon the reel if necessary, and the 
lines had been wet, hence there was no possibility of 
burning by friction. Every preparation had been made 
and the young anglers were ready for the strike. 

"Plenty of company, sir," said the Commodore, point- 
ing down the coast, and near Avalon a number of launches 
could be seen coming up, some near shore, others well 
out, all eager for this most exciting of sports. 

" I don't fancy some of them chaps," said the Com- 
modore, eying the boats with a glass. 

" Why ?" asked the Angler. 

" Because, sir, they're out for blood. Some people 
come way out here and think they've the contract to kill 
all the fish in the sea. I'm only wishin' that bechune 
now and Sunday some big tuna'll yank some of them 
over. What does a mon want with more than wan fish 
when it weighs one hundred and fifty pounds, or more ? 



34 THE BOY ANGLERS 

When a gintleman fishes he catches enough and no 
more," continued the old sailor, "an' if by mistake he 
takes more he relases it." 

"You hear, boys?" said Mr. Temple. "What 
Robert says is the principle which should govern every 
sportsman. No matter how good the fishing, stop if you 
have to destroy more fish than you can use." 

" True, sir," said the Commodore. " I " 

" Hi-i-i !" shouted Tom, as his rod bent like a willow 
while the reel fairly squealed its zee-e-e-zee-e-e-, and 
astern a cyclonic swirl of water appeared. 

" Blither and zounds ! ye've missed him," cried the 
Commodore, who had shut off the engine at the first note 
and stood glaring around. 

" Yes, gone," said Tom, reeling in a slack line, " and 
all for listening and not fishing." 

" True for ye, Mr. Tom," said the Commodore. 
" When you're fishin* you want to 'tend strictly to busi- 
ness." 

" Look there," interrupted Joe, as the boat got under 
way again. 

The boys turned and witnessed a sight only to be 
seen when the tuna feeds. The surface of the water 
everywhere was perfectly smooth — a great blue disk, yet 
suddenly white caps appeared — without wind, the water 
tossed into foam so that from the boat heavy seas were 
apparently beating upon the Long Point rocks. 

" Tunas ! " shouted the boys. 

" Nothing else," said the Commodore, putting on full 



A HIGH JUMPER 



35 



speed. " See, they're comin' this way. Look at the 
flyin'-fish ; look out ; heads down ; down bridge ! " as 
Joe struck wildly at a flying-fish that came soaring over 
the boat on a line with their heads, the Angler dodging to 
avoid it. The next fish Joe knocked into the boat with 
the gaff, and presently the air appeared to be filled with 
flying-fishes, which like gigantic dragon flies darted hither 
and yon, while not one hundred yards away was the 




The leaping tuna. 

school of tunas driving them on, leaping into the air after 
them, flinging themselves along the surface, rising out of 
the water like arrows, catching the game in the air, on 
the surface, missing it and plowing along, hurling the 
water aloft in silvery waves that caught the sun and hurled 
back a hundred tints and gleams. It was a sight to make 
one wave his hands aloft and shout at the very splendor 
of it all. The Commodore's face grew redder and redder, 



36 THE BOY ANGLERS 

and he tried to put the launch at half speed by a turn of 
the wheel ; then the scream of Jack's reel, long contin- 
ued, brought them all to their senses. The launch was 
stopped and all hands turned to watch the happy young 
angler who had hooked his first tuna. They were in the 
very heart of the school ; several flying-fishes struck the 
launch and the bombardment kept them on the lookout, 
as to be hit by a flying-fish at full speed was not a joke. 
The tunas were leaping six feet or more not a dozen 
yards from them. 

" If you land that feesh, my lad, you're lucky," 
whispered the Commodore. " Another tuna will cut the 
line." 

But Jack was doing well. The tuna evidently had 
struck on the dead run and taken two hundred feet of 
line while he listened to the sound, zee-e-e-e, and the im- 
pact almost took the boy from his seat as he gently 
thumbed the leather brake. Jack was perfectly cool, and 
held his rod point well up ; had the butt in the socket be- 
tween his knees ; his left hand grasped the upper grip of 
the rod, and his well-tried and hardened muscles were 
putting a pressure on the pad that would sooner or later 
tell. The Angler had taken out his watch at the strike 
to time him, while Tom had reeled rapidly in to give his 
brother the field. Joe was amidships near his gafF, look- 
ing over Jack's shoulder to prompt him if necessary, and 
with an oar in hand to keep the stern of the launch to 
the fish. 

" Gently ! " whispered the Commodore, as Jack ap- 



A HIGH JUMPER 37 

peared to fairly double up as his rod's tip struck the water 
with a hiss. " Easy ; not too much muscle ; let him tire 
himself out j you've got three hundred feet left." 

" But I don't want him to get any more line," gasped 
Jack, endeavoring to lift the bending rod. 

The fish had made a splendid rush. Jack stopped and 
turned it j then down deep it plunged, taking line at every 
rush in jerks that made the reel fairly cry out, finding an 
echoing grunt in the Commodore, whose eyes seemed 
almost popping out of his head ; now in delight at the 
skill the boy displayed ; now In fear that he would " give 
it to the fish " too much. 

" Hang on to him, pride o' me heart," he whispered ; 
" easy now ; ah, that's it ; reel, mon, reel for your life. 
Ah, a bonnie feesh that. He's a thousand pounds in his 
bones if an ounce, and more," dancing about, fingering 
his gafF and talking now in Irish brogue, now in Scotch 
with burr broad enough to change the wind, until Jack 
burst into laughter, and said that if he didn't stop he'd 
give up. 

The moments were flying ; the big fish was down 
four hundred feet somewhere. The water here was as 
blue as the heavens and none knew how deep, even 
though the rocks were not two hundred yards distant. 
The rod looked like a bow hard pulled and Jack never 
took eyes off the tip, that was the danger point ; that 
brilliant silver spot with its polished agate was the star of 
fate for him and when it bowed viciously he gave line, 
then reeled and gained a foot ; then with a tremendous 



38 THE BOY ANGLERS 

spurt the fish would rush away and the handle of the 
reel would revolve so fast that he could not see it, then a 
foot or two would be gained. Twenty minutes had 
sHpped away and that seeming angling miracle was being 
enacted — a heavy launch holding five men was being 
towed slowly out to sea by a Hne four hundred feet long, 
known to fame as a twenty-four thread. The tuna had 
taken a gait about three miles an hour, at an angler's 
guess, and was headed for San Pedro. 

" Can't ye turn him, lad?" asked the Commodore. 
" Pump the life out of him." 

This was easier said than done. Jack was bracing 
back holding the rod with a grasp of iron, yet deep in 
his heart he felt a slight suspicion that this big fish was 
playing with him ; that he, the angler, had been caught. 
Pump him ? ah, how easy it was to the lookers on. But 
he buckled to his work ; the fish must be raised, as of all 
things in the sea a sulking tuna is the most unreasonable, 
the most exasperating. Now then, a long breath, a slight 
release of the cramped fingers, then a new grip and he 
raises the rod up inch by inch, up, up, until the tip 
points to the sky, then like a flash he drops it, his right 
hand springs to the reel handle and whirls it around, and 
he braces up. Hurrah [ he has gained in line the dis- 
tance between the upright tip and the surface, nearly five 
feet, all by the angler's trick of " pumping." Again he 
lifts, no one can tell how much, it may be fifty pounds, 
it may be two hundred, but up it comes, and the Angler's 
stop watch indicates three quarters of an hour, and 



A HIGH JUMPER 39 

slowly and surely they are moving out, and are now a 
mile beyond the point. 

" You'll have to push the fighting, my lad," said the 
Commodore. " Every time you rest the tuna rests twice. 
Where's your second wind ? " 

" I'm afraid I've left it at home," groaned Jack. 
" I'm about winded, but I'm going to land this fish if it 
takes the whole season." 

" Good ! " exclaimed Joe ; " that's the talk." 
" If you can't do it I'll take him," said Tom, winking 
at the Commodore. 

Jack smiled. His face was red and great beads of 
perspiration ran down his cheeks. Had he not been 
well trained in the gymnasium and in all manly sports 
he would never have lasted so long, but that strange 
something which all boxers and runners know as the 
" second wind" was coming, and Jack began a series of 
short pumps rapidly making fifty feet of line, and, what 
was better, holding it. Then suddenly the line became 
slack — gone ! The boy's face dropped at the very 
thought, but he took no chances and reeled rapidly, the 
big multiplier eating up the line feet and yards until it 
came taut, and twenty feet were lost in a splendid spurt. 
But he had stopped the fish, turned the tuna, which now 
surged around in the arc of a circle, Joe forcing the stern 
of the launch around with an oar. Slowly the boat began 
to move inshore behind this marvel among fishes. The 
turn was made after one hour and thirty minutes. What 
this means no boy caji realize unless he has tried It. It 



40 THE BOY ANGLERS 

means one round of an hour and a half without any 
" time." It means one heat during every moment of 
which, when the fish was not rushing or plunging, there 
was a strain on the rod and the left side of the angler 
that alone is sufficient to wear out some men in far less 
time. 

The tuna so far had displayed no sign of weariness, 
and during the next half hour it made many more rushes 
taking one hundred feet of line which Jack regained 
slowly, and at the end of two hours they were four miles 
from where the fish was hooked and within two hundred 
feet of the cliffs. Jack, as the Commodore remarked 
later, " looked white around the gills," and if the truth 
were known was in bad shape. His hands were blistered 
from clinching the rod ; the handle had mutilated three 
knuckles in a sudden rush, and his entire left side felt 
as though it had turned to stone. Jack had never been 
known as a " quitter " at school. Several fellows had 
discovered that in friendly bouts over the gloves, in polo, 
and following the hounds, but it was evident he had 
work cut out for him that tested every ounce of endur- 
ance. Long before Joe had raised a large flag with a 
picture of a tuna on it, which informed the fleet and all 
comers that they were fast to a fish, and for all boats to stand 
off. This did not prevent several launches, laden with 
tourists, from coming up astern in the direction opposite 
the fish and following along to watch a boy playing a 
game fish that some men could not land. Jack was reel- 
ing when suddenly it turned, rose to the surface, and 



A HIGH JUMPER 41 

came rushing at the boat — a trick common to many fishes. 
But, the young angler had too many eyes on him to fail 
now. He took in the slack, standing to see the splendid play 
of the tuna,andwas nearly jerked from his feet as the game 
turned and dashed away. Zee-e-e-e-e-e ! how the reel 
sounded ! then to Jack's surprise he stopped the fish. 
For the first time in all that long, weary, heart-breaking 
struggle had the tuna showed signs of weakening ; up 
went the tip, down it dropped with six feet gained, up 
and down, like the walking beam of a steamer, gaining, 
ever gaining, and Joe leaning over with his gafF ready, 
whispering encouragement. In it came until all saw it 
— a glorious creature, a giant among fishes. 

" Blitheration ! but it's a monster. See the glint 
forninst it," exclaimed the Commodore, excitedly. 

Slowly Jack reeled, watching for the rush he knew 
would come. Then the tuna saw the boat, turned and 
lunged down, down twenty feet, then the rod slowly 
straightened and the reel flew around again. Once 
more it comes in, the line cutting the blue waters like a 
knife, up through radiant jelly-fishes, bearing off^ gallant- 
ly, its tail working steadily ; now in plain view, a giant 
yet unable to gain an inch of slack, and turned once more 
at the quarter. No jokes now. No whispered advice, 
silence, not a sound but the hissing of the line 
and the hard breathing of the angler ; then a quick turn 
and the tuna passed the quarter, headed for the bow, 
Joe's long gafF all the time sinking deeper and deeper 
into the water until just at the right moment, when the 



42 THE BOY ANGLERS 

end of the long leader was near the tip, he jerked the 
sharp steel into the throat of the game, jerked it deep 
and hard as the crew dodged the spray that the big 
fish hurled over them with its tail, writhinSj twisting, as 
Joe, using the big pole as a lever, Hfted and held the pon- 
derous head out of water, showing the large eyes glaring, 
hypnotic, and the steel-blue back. Even then no one 
spoke and Jack's eyes never moved from the fish and 
rod tip, keeping his line taut ready for a possible break. 
All hands now leaned to starboard careening the launch, 
and as her gunwale went down Joe and Tom lifted and 
dexterously slid into the cockpit six feet of as splendid a 
tuna as had been landed in many a day. Then merrily 
they gave way, and with hats off' gave Jack three times 
three and tigers without end ; the following launch took 
it up, and so the deed was accomplished. There was 
not room for the Commodore to dance a hornpipe, but 
he did later that evening when relating the story to the 
lady of the canon. 

In the distance several boats were seen with flags up 
announcing that they had tunas on, and the Angler took 
his son's place and the Torqua, with all flags flying, ran 
again in the direction of Long Point. 

" To tell the truth," said Jack, cutting out pieces of 
court-plaster for his knuckles, '' about five minutes more 
of that work would have seen my Waterloo. I was 
shaking all over." 

"Thrills of joy, sir," said Captain Johnnie. " D'ye 
mind, Joe, when I caught the record lapin' shark that 



A HIGH JUMPER 43 

weighed nine hundred pounds with his head ofF, or was 
it eleven hundred pounds with his head on — I don't 
know which, I hev lapses in me mind when I'm fishin'j 
but anyway, I had the thrills goin' over me for a wake. 
Ivery time I wint on the street the tourists ridin' in the 
glass-bottom boats would point me out and say ' That's 
him.' ' Him what ? ' says one. ' Why, the man that 
took the fifteen-hundred-pound lapin' shark with a ten- 
ounce split bamboo.' ' Well, he don't look it,' says 
the other. They even made excuses to take me out to 
lunch to get me to spin the yarn and say ' Are you the 
Mr. Graley that tuk the two-thousand-pound lapin' shark 
with a Bathebara rod ? ' 'I am,' says I, swellin' per- 
ceptible. ' I wanter know,' says the tourist ; ' you don't 
look it.' By the time I'd been told that forty times I 
began to think I'd never landed a three-thousand-pound 
lapin' shark." 

" Na, an' you never see wan eighteen inches long," 
roared the Commodore. " I've " 

But the discussion was interrupted by the Angler giv- 
ing the order to stop the launch and all hands turned to 
see what was in the wind. Just ahead on the smooth 
surface of the ocean was a triangular figure, perhaps one 
hundred feet long, moving slowly and reg-jlarly. It was 
a school of tunas swimming like a flock of ducks, one 
leader in front with fins just above the surface. On 
they came until the fishing party could see them dis- 
tinctly. Mr. Temple had reeled in and now had his rod 
in both hands, proposing to cast into the school. As 



44 THE BOY ANGLERS 

they came he leaned back and made a heavy side cast 
that sent the big bait flying seventy feet through the air; 
it struck fairly in the school. A swirl of waters as though 
a maelstrom had suddenly appeared and zee-e-e-e-e-e-e ! 
went the reel as the line slipped off and melted away in 
the blue sea. There was no stopping such a rush and 
three hundred and fifty feet of line went before the tuna 
stopped ; then when its impetuous rush was over it rose 
to the surface and afforded the angler the gamiest play 
he had ever enjoyed. It never left the surface, playing 
like a bonito, rushing in and out, swaying to right and 
left, but always coming in. In less than hdf an hour 
it was brought to gaff and seen to be a small fish prob- 
ably weighing not over se\'enty pounds. The Angler 
reeled it in, brought it carefully up, and Joe held it by the 
wire-leader with one hand and cut it away with the 
other. 

" Mighty few tunas get away nowadays," he re- 
marked, as the fish shot away. " There's a big de- 
mand for every one we can get. I reckon you'll want 
the big fellow for a specimen." 

" Yes," Jack quickly replied, " that goes in my den. 
I shall never get a larger one and, if I can always have 
Johnnie to tell the story, its weight will never grow 
less." 

After visiting several launches and exchanging con- 
gratulations with their owners, the launch steamed to 
the canon, where the boys went ashore and displayed 
the catch to their mother, while Joe took the tuna to 



A HIGH JUMPER 45 

Avalon, where it was handed over to the taxidermist, 
weighed, measured, and later mounted as a trophy. 

That night around the camp-fire there was a remark- 
able exchange of opinions regarding the tuna. Johnnie 
Graley and Joe, as well as the Commodore, related 
various strange and exciting experiences, amid peals of 
laughter from the fun-loving Angler, with whom the 
boatmen were privileged characters and originals in every 
sense. 

" D'ye remember, Joe," said Johnnie, " the day the 
man-eater came swimmin' into Avalon bay with a brown 
silk umbrella ? " — turning the shoulder of goat he was 
barbecuing and pretending to hide his eyes with his 
hand. 

" This is too much," said Mrs. Temple, laughing, 
" a shark with an umbrella ? " 

" Sure as I'm standin' here, ma'm, an' not a drop 
o' rain on the island for four months, and none 
comin'." 

" I see it myself," said Joe, chuckling. '' They 
hung it up and cut it open, and there was the um- 
brella." 

" And," interrupted Johnnie, " you oughter have 
seen the horror-stricken tourists lookin' at it, and me 
paid wan dollar by as fine a gintleman as ever lived — 
and how he loved a joke — to stand around and kape 
tellin' the story, and he says, ' Johnnie,' says he, ' when 
you git tired tellin' it wan way tell it another,' and so I 
did. Wan old man says, ' What does it mane ? ' ' Why,' 



46 THE BOY ANGLERS 

says I, 'she's devoured, all but the umbrelly; you wouldn't 
expect a shark to digest that.' Then off he goes to tell 
his wife not to go in bathin'. I told seventeen varsions, 
and had all nationalities killed off. ' What's this ? ' says 
a tenderfoot. ' Young man went walkin' along the beach 
this mornin',' says I, ' and he's missin' ; but they found 
the umbrelly in this shark — ye've heard o' the lapin' 
shark ? ' ' Seized him from the beach ? ' says he, horror 
creepin' into his eye. I nodded me head and wiped me 
eyes. And so they come. I was wonderin' what to 
tell a fat man when he says, ' D'ye mind buyin' me a 
cigar at the store yonder ? Get wan yourself,' and he 
handed me ten cents. I don't know," continued Johnnie, 
laughing, " what made me, but I went, an' when I got 
back — well, I'd sold a good silk umbrella for ten cents 
— he'd walked off with it." 

" Well, you had the shark left, and it served you 
right, Johnnie," said Tom, '' for stuffing a good umbrella 
into a dead shark's mouth." 

" Have tunas always been caught here, Joe .? " asked 
Mr. Temple. 

" Yes, sir. I've been here thirty years and have 
always seen them. Sometimes they come early, some- 
times late, sometimes a good many, and often but a few. 
They live on flyin'-fish in the early season ; then, I 
think, go to deep water an' feed on squid ; anyway, we 
find them full of squid in August. The season generally 
opens the middle of May, earlier or later as the case may 
be. Of late years It's been about the middle of June, 



A HIGH JUMPER 



47 



an' they bite for about six weeks, then stop bitin' just 
as though you dropped the hat." 

" So you think they change their food ? " said Mr. 
Temple. 

" Yes, sir," replied Joe. " In winter they go into 
deep water or further south, though they catch them on 
the Cortez Banks, about thirty miles to the south of 
here, in winter. How 
big do they grow ? I've 
seen one swimmin' that 
I thought would weigh a 
thousand pounds. Fif- 
teen - hundred - pounders 
hav^e been speared in the 
East, I hear, an' a nine 
hundred pounder was 
seined at Monterey; but 
all the fish round this 
island seem just the size 
for rod fishin' — the larg- 
est ever taken weighed 
two hundred and fifty- 
one pounds."^ 

A typical tuna catch has been described, witnessed, 
and experienced by the author, on many a bright day 




Record boys' catch of leaping tuna. 



^ This is the world's rod record of Col. C. P. Morehous, of Pasadena, 
Cal. The author's record was one hundred and eighty-three pounds, which 
held for three years. This fish towed the boat ten miles in four hours, and 
was fought continuously during this time. 



48 THE BOY ANGLERS 

along the Isle of Summer, and several boys have distin- 
guished themselves by taking the splendid fish, one of 
the most notable catches being that of Charles Benedict 
Paine, of Cleveland, who played the tuna shown in this 
volume nearly seven hours, or, to be exact, six hours and 
forty minutes, before it was brought to gaff. He fol- 
lowed the rules of the Tuna Club in every particular, 
fishing with a rod and reel, the line being not larger than 
a twenty-four strand cuttyhunk. He received no assist- 
ance, and the catch was watched by a member of the 
club and a boatman, who gafFed the tuna. It was esti- 
mated that the fish towed the launch, during the con- 
test, a distance of twenty miles in various directions. 
This catch gave the young angler membership in the 
Tuna Club, entitling him to wear the blue button of 
the club, showing that he had taken, unaided, in the 
method described, a tuna weighing over one hundred 
pounds. 

The tuna, the king of the mackerel tribe, known as 
Thynnus thunnus^ is a pelagic fish, or found in the open 
sea, ranging many waters on each side of the equator, 
but rarely coming inshore in great numbers. Very large 
specimens are sometimes trapped in the weirs of the 
Atlantic coast, where they are speared, but, as the fish 
here average very large ones — from one thousand to 
fifteen hundred pounds, and nine or ten i^^x. in length — 
they are taken only with the harpoon or a shark line. 
Santa Catalina is the only locality where tunas of one 
hundred and fifty or two hundred pounds weight come 



A HIGH JUMPER 49 

inshore in sufficient numbers to permit successful rod 
fishing in smooth water. The tuna can not be con- 
fused with any other fish, having a decided individu- 
ality, yet bearing a close resemblance to its cousin the 
mackerel. 



/ 



CHAPTER IV 

FISHING IN AN OCEAN FOREST 

Every day was not devoted to fishing at Anglers' 
Canon, and Joe said it would take Jack three or four 
days to " limber up." The Commodore expressed the 
opinion that the hero of the previous day had a " list to 
starboard," while Johnnie, after a critical glance, was 
certain that he was " hogged," all of which Jack, as the 
hero, took in good part. But, if the truth were told, he 
was stiff, sore, and lame ; his backbone seemed to work 
roughly when he stooped ; there were blisters on his 
hands, and several knuckles had lost their caps ; in fact. 
Jack felt very much as he did after the first football 
game of the season, when he had been the under man 
in every rush ; but all these pains were forgotten in the 
realization of the fact that he had landed a fish that had 
laid many an older angler low and that no boy had ever 
caught with a rod and reel. In the forenoon he took a 
swim in the bay ; then the party went to Avalon to see 
how the tuna looked, and Jack received an ovation from 
the boatmen, who knew him well, with three times three 
and a tiger. Jack now knew what it is to be famous. 
" Dewey ain't in It with him," he overheard a small boy 
50 



FISHING IN AN OCEAN FOREST 51 

say, with a suspicion of envy in his tone ; and, as he 
walked down the street, the glass-bottom boat captains 
and others congratulated him, and some ladies whispered, 
" That's the boy who caught the tuna." Even the daily 
papers described the catch at length, carrying envy and 
despair to the boys all over Los Angeles county who 
could not go a-fishing. 

They visited the taxidermist, and found that the, gamy 
fish had been skinned and stretched, half of it over a 
plaster cast, so that a very good idea of its attractions 
could be obtained. The taxidermist said that he had 
seen many tunas, but never one so well proportioned 
and handsome, so it is not surprising that Jack forgot 
his bruises and in a day or two was in good trim. 

In the meantime the camp had been completely ar- 
ranged ; chairs and hammocks placed under the big cot- 
tonwoods and everything gotten into running order. 
There was one feature that a stranger from the East 
would have noticed ; the tents were not banked up, there 
were no arrangements for storm water, no umbrellas or 
rain coats in camp ; in fact, it did not rain between May 
and November in this strange country. The summer 
was absolutely stormless ; no rain, thunder, or lightning, 
or storms of any kind if we except an occasional stiff 
breeze ; so that it was possible to make an engagement 
days and weeks ahead with the positive assurance from 
the weather clerk that the day would be clear and pleas- 
ant. In a word, at Santa Catalina every day was a fish- 
ing day in the broadest and happiest sense. 



52 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



During the days of retirement from active work vari- 
ous trips were made in the bay. A glass-bottom boat 
came up from Avalon, and through it the party studied 
the kelp beds. These boats, a fleet of which made its 
headquarters at Avalon, ranged from large side-wheelers 
to small craft, and were rigged with a large glass window 
in the bottom which slightly magnified everything. The 
glass was at the bottom of a well, the rim of which was 

cushioned, and the 
observers leaned up- 
on the latter, and 
looked down into 
the water made 
smooth by the glass. 
Through this inge- 
nious device nearly 
every object could 
be distinctly seen in 
water nearly sixty 
feet deep. As they 
drifted over the kelp 
beds the scene was 
beautiful almost 
beyond description. 
They could see the 
delicate hydrozoan colonies growing on the kelp leaves 
and rocks, some secreting a coralline-like growth. Jelly- 
fishes of the greatest delicacy drifted by like crystal ships, 
fairy craft that at night produced a part of the wonderful 




A jelly-fish. 



FISHING IN AN OCEAN FOREST 53 

phosphorescence for which the region is famed. In the 
crevices of the rocks were sea-anemones of various hues, 
very Hke flowers, throwing out delicate tentacles or clos- 




ea-anemones. 



ing at the slightest alarm. The kelp beds afforded an 
interesting field to study the strange protective resem- 
blances among animals. Even the crabs here were 

tinted the exact color of the leaf — olive green upon 

which they rested, while on a rock was a hermit crab, 
its shell so protected by a growth of weed that it could 



54 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



hardly be distinguished from the rock. As the boat 
drifted on, large sea-cucumbers were seen lying on the 
rocks like giant slugs, star fishes of various kinds, and 
others, all making up this strange picture of the land be- 
neath the sea. 

A few days after the capture of the tuna Johnnie 
Graley was routed out at half-past four in the morning 
by the boys, who were eager to be off on the fishing trip 
for bass, which had been arranged previously. 





. ''-'^pp 


ik.. .><>iw;^SIH 


^g^:j 


X hf inji^^ j^^^^^^^^^^B 


m 




"i^^ii^^c^^/ 


- ■^-'\fflB 


v^^^^^^^w^ ^ 


-inHlffm 




^^^jgte^^<'||^^pR25|vi 



Crabs of the kelp beds. 



" Ain't no use in goin' bass fishin' so early," said 
Johnnie, rubbing his eyes and appearing at the dining 
tent. 

" Why ?" asked Jack. 

" They don't git up so early," replied Johnnie, 



FISHING IN AN OCEAN FOREST 55 



" You mean you don't want to get up," retorted Jack. 

Sleep was impossible if fishing was in the wind, and 
by sunrise the fishing party had had breakfast and were 
off. The Torqua was covered with a tarpaulin at 
night to keep off the sea-gulls which went aboard for 



A/k;/' 




Hermit-crab. 



bait and the flying-fishes that sometimes flew in, and 
this lifted she was dry and ready for work. At the word 
from the Angler the mooring was cast off and they glided 
out into the beautiful vermilion light which filled the east 
as the sun came up, turned south and followed the kelp 
bed along the rocky shore of the island. All the islands 
of the Californian coast are surrounded by a growth of sea- 
weed called kelp — a vine which grows to several hundred 
feet in length, with enormous lea\es or fronds rising and 



56 THE BOY ANGLERS 

floating on the surface at low tide, and at all times form- 
ing a perfect maze or forest, drifting with the current 
and presenting a beautiful appearance. The Torqua 
skirted the kelp forest, the fishermen Catching glimpses 
of its wonders, the rich colors, its fluted leaves, and the 
brilliant reddish-gold and blue fishes which posed among 
them. 

"That's where the bass live," said Joe; "just like 
birds in the woods. You hook a fish offshore and he 
turns and puts for the woods, like a shot, an' you have 
to know how to keep him out or you don't git your Mis- 
ter Bass. We uster git heaps of them right here," con- 
tinued Joe, pointing to a long fine pebble beach which 
the Torqua was passing, " but they caught so many an' 
tossed the heads over that they jest scared the fish away 
and they got up an' packed out, an' now you have to go 
round by the ' fence ' or near there." 

The " fence" was a point just back of the town of 
Avalon, on the south side of the island, where great 
masses of kelp, clustered around the rocks and offshore, 
formed a deep laminarian forest. 

" You see," said Joe, " the bass comes inshore in 
spring, and lives in the outer forest, and runs inshore to 
feed and spawn, an' when he runs foul of a hook, why, 
he makes a break for the outer forest — you'll see," and 
Joe laughed and nodded his head. 

" Tackle all ready ?" asked Mr. Temple, as Johnnie 
gave the wheel a turn and headed the boat for Church 
Rock. 



FISHING IN AN OCEAN FOREST 57 

" Aye, aye, sir," said the Commodore j " ready and 
fit." 

The rods were almost identical with those used for 
tuna fishing. One was a split bamboo, another a noib- 
wood, while others in the launch, ready for smaller game, 
were greenheart rods. The lines w^ere twenty-four thread 
cuttyhunk, as there was sulking and lifting in the wind, 
and the hook was a number lo/o O'Shaughnessy. Joe 
was baiting each with about six pounds of raw albacore. 

" It's six of one and half a dozen of the other," he 
said, straightening the seven-foot wire leader. " Half a 
barracuda can't be beat, or a live whitefish, or even flyin'- 
fish ; but they are mighty fond of albacore meat ; it's 
rich and juicy." 

The launch now rounded Church Rock, a great 
brown mass that rose from the sea, and in a few mo- 
ments they ran in near the kelp that was lying on the 
surface and the anchor was dropped. Johnnie fastened 
it to a keg which could be cast off at the slightest 
warning; and when the boat swung three or four baits 
were tossed over ; some allowed to go to the bottom, 
others suspended a foot or more above it, as Joe said, to 
take all the chances. Johnnie Graley was fishing for 
sheepshead for dinner, being the purveyor, and in a short 
time he had a fine fellow on his line and at the surface, 
its black head, white under-jaw and blunt face making it 
a singular object. 

It was an attractive fishing ground ; the lofty cliffs 
and mountains of the island rose not one hundred yards 



58 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



away, the sea breaking gently at their very base. The 
water was smooth as glass, indeed looking as though it had 
been oiled as far as the eye could reach, then blending 

into distant banks of cloud 
or fog. The water was as 
clear as crystal and in its 
depths could be seen count- 
less forms of jelly-fishes, 
while on the surface, here 
and there, were Portuguese 
men-of-war — fairy-craft — 
which drifted in the cur- 
rent colliding with the 
stems and branches of the 
laminarian trees like veri- 
table air-ships. The cur- 
rent appeared to be very 
erratic ; now at rest, again 
flowing up the island to 
turn and run in the oppo- 
site direction, due to local 
causes. Johnnie had just 
begun a wierd tale about 
his experiences in the Gulf 
of California, where the 
sea-bass, according to his 
story, weighed one thousand pounds, when Tom's reel 
gave tongue. Just one cog slipped, but it gave every 
one in the boat a slight electric shock, at least they 




4") 



The Portuguese man-of-war. 



FISHING IN AN OCEAN FOREST 59 

thought so, then zee! it came again and again, zee! zee! 
and stopped. 

" Crabs," said the Commodore, his eyes fixed intently 
on the water. 

^' Crabs, nothing," retorted Johnnie in a low sepul- 
chral voice ; " bass. Let him have it." 

Again came the click, click on Tom*s reel, and 
throwing off the brake he gently overran the line, which 
was now going over very slowly and deliberately, just as 
a crab might have taken it. One, two, three, six, eight 
feet slipped over, then five or six more, and then the line 
stopped. Every one was keyed up by this time to high 
tension, and Johnnie Graley had reeled in his line and 
made the float ready to cast off at the first warning. 

" He come back," said Joe ; " mighty fussy fish. 
Sometime he pick, pick, an' take long time to make up 
his mind." 

Joe was a true prophet, as, presently, the bait again 
moved and this time ran out ten or fifteen feet ; then Joe 
nodded, Tom threw on the click and pressed his thumb 
upon the leather pad, allowing the line to come taut ; as 
it did, he lowered the tip, and when the line was stiff he 
braced back, not jerking, but with a steady, powerful 
surge " gave the fish the butt," and set the hook into its 
hard jaws. That he was not lifted out of the boat was 
due to Joe, who grasped his sweater as he appeared to 
be going, the fish making a rush that was irresistible. 

" Cast off! " shouted Joe. 

" Cast off it is," answered Johnnie, and as the rod 



6o THE BOY ANGLERS 

bobbed up and down, as though bowing to the fish, Jack 
slipped out of his seat, giving Tom the stern, while the 
Commodore took the oar and forced the stern of the 
Torqua around to the fish. The reel now uttered a 
voluble protest, fighting the big fish away, down some- 
where at the bottom of the sea, but Tom had stopped it 
and the launch was moving slowly through the water be- 
hind an unknown finny steed. 

" Give it to him ! " said the Angler ; " remember that 
when you stop, he is resting also. This is a fight in 
which there are no heats." 

Tom redoubled his efforts, but the fish made a sud- 
den rush and not only took all the line gained but fifty 
feet more. 

" He's makin' for the kelp," cried Joe, and slipping 
the oars over he and Johnnie held back, putting the rod 
and line to severe test as the fish made a run directly 
out to sea. There was no stopping it ; line, rod, every- 
thing would have given way had there been any resist- 
ance beyond the click, and the long line was rapidly 
melting away. 

"Try and stop him," said Mr. Temple. 

Tom bent over his thumb and changed the staccato 
shriek of the reel to a deep grinding bass ; the tip of the 
rod dropped low as he now held on ; three hundred feet 
of line had gotten away in that rush. 

" Good boy, fine," muttered Joe. 

"You must turn him if possible, Tom," said Mr. 
Temple. 



FISHING IN AN OCEAN FOREST 6i 

Tom rallied, though the strain was terrific, turning 
the rod tip to the left, lifting or pumping at the same 
time, and succeeded in holding the fish, and with the 
aid of the oars heading it in another direction. By hard 
work he gained twenty feet or more, lifting and whirl- 
ing the reel handle about when he had the opportunity. 
In this way almost half an hour slipped away and the 
launch had been towed well offshore. 

" I'm sure he weighs a ton," gasped Tom, as he 
looked at the tremendous weight. 

" Four hundred and twenty-nine pounds the record," 
said Joe ; " you may beat it, but not that way," as the 
bass made a rush that swept the rod tip down into the 
water and sent a wail of anguish whistling through the 
air from the steel throat of the reel. But Tom bent 
over the reel, pressing his thumb upon the leather pad 
with all his strength, and his thumb and forefinger upon 
the line above the reel, and held on while the rod bent, 
the launch moving along — a wonderful illustration of 
what good tackle will stand. The bass evidently had 
been brought to a standstill, as it changed its tactics, 
running in on the line, Tom reeling as fast as he could, 
stopping as the big fish turned and plunged downward 
with a dead force that nothing could withstand. But it 
was stopped within twenty feet, and then slowly, labo- 
riously pumping, the bass came slowly up. Now it 
seemingly would shake its head, the line fairly trembling, 
and Tom would be lifted from the seat to settle back 
and reel and reel. Suddenly the fish began to rise, com- 



62 THE BOY ANGLERS 

ing near the surface one hundred feet away, where it 
swam around. The angler gained rapidly at this time, 
making twenty feet before it plunged again. He had now 
been playing the bass nearly an hour and what appeared 
like a long struggle had evidently begun. 

" How long does it generally take ? " asked Tom, 
anxiously. 

" I've seen one fight a man four hours and get 
away," replied Joe. 

"And I've seen one landed in ten minutes," reas- 
sured Johnnie, as Tom groaned audibly. " It's all a 
trick ; you want to force the fighting." 

" I am forcing," retorted Tom, reeling again with 
all his strength, " but what I need is a donkey engine ; 
at times I can't move him." 

"You are gaining," said his father, laughing. " When 
you get the slightest chance, rush him." 

But the bass continued to rush Tom ; played with 
him ; now stealing line, now coming in, nearly pulling 
his arms out of their sockets ; but after a quick plunge 
there came a sudden slacking of the line, and Tom 
reeled with renewed vigor. Jack shouting " Good boy ; 
give it to him, I see him ! " 

" Yes, here he is, and a corker, sir. Aisy with him. 
By the powers ! he's as big as a whale," and the Com- 
modore, excited as a boy, reached for the gaff', handing it 
to Joe, whose fame had been built on just such struggles, 
and all stood breathless and watched the clever killing of 
a fish which weighed three times as much as the angler. 



FISHING IN AN OCEAN FOREST 63 

It came in slowly, circling around, and not twenty feet 
down its huge black and white form could be seen. 

" Stand ready for a rush ; it's comin' as soon as he 
sights the boat." 

Joe had hardly spoken these words when the fish 
turned and plunged downward, zeeee — ee — zeee — eeee ! 
sounding in a long wail. But Tom stopped and turned 
it up with a clever lift and soon had the fish in sight. 
And what a fish it was ! Little wonder that the Com- 
modore snorted, as Jack said, like a grampus, and danced 
around. Little wonder that Tom was excited as into 
the clear water he reeled a fish so gigantic that he could 
not believe it possible that he had accomplished the feat 
with the thread of a line. Yet here was the evidence 
six or more feet in length, thick and as heavy as a 
twelve-foot shark, bulky, in fact, titanic, yet the almost 
perfect image of a small-mouth bass, if we can imagine 
one of these fishes magnified out of all proportion. Such 
was the fish that Tom now reeled in, and which he di- 
rected cleverly to his left and turned so that Joe could 
approach it with the gafF. A quick bend, and the gaff 
went down, and with a jerk he sank it Into the throat of 
the monster, Joe lifting it quickly and holding it at the 
surface, where it rolled and thrashed, drenching them all 
in its struggles. A marvelous creature, at least to be 
caught in the manner described. How they cheered and 
shouted ! the Commodore, not at all behind the rest, de- 
claring that it was the cleverest catch he had ever seen, 
and that Tom had " done himself proud." 



64 THE BOY ANGLERS 

In the meantime Tom, who had received at least a 
bucket of water in the face from the tail of the monster, 
held his rod ready for a rush ; but Joe had the bass and 
he now slackened away, and Johnnie cleverly put a rope 
through the gills and out at the mouth of the big fish, 
and then it was killed with the knife and all hands took 
the rope and the giant was hauled on the forward deck, 
where Tom feasted his eyes on the game, realizing why 
he had almost been caught himself. Few large fishes 
except the Florida jewfish present so colossal an appear- 
ance as the black sea-bass of California. It is the king 
of the bass tribe, yet when swimming it is one of the 
most graceful of fishes. 

Johnnie now started the engine and they ran back to 
the moorings, where they tied up for lunch and to discuss 
the catch, which had been made in less than two hours. 
The Commodore got out the lunch basket, the con- 
tents of which were passed around, while Joe on a port- 
able oil-stove heated coffee. 

" How big a one have you ever caught, Joe ? " asked 
Jack. 

" I can't tell," was the reply. " I'm a pretty husky 
puller, but I tackled one once that I couldn't move ; he 
pulled me elbow deep, and I was goin' overboard when 
I took a turn with the line — a big rope — and when we 
hauled it in the shark-hook was straightened out. I 
reckon he must have weighed eight hundred or a thou- 
sand pounds ! " 

" Here goes for another," said Johnnie, casting over 



FISHING IN AN OCEAN FOREST 65 

while Tom and his father took their light rods and in a 
short time were having fine sport with the bonito — a 
fish that ranges from five to twelve pounds, making a 
splendid play with the split-bamboo rod, almost always 
on the surface, and when it comes in displaying all the 
colors of the rainbow — a kaleidoscope of most beautiful 
tints and shades. Johnnie Graley was one of those 
peculiar philosophers who see no pleasure in fishing. It 
was work to him, as he often was obliged to earn his 
living in this way ; and to haul in a big fish and work 
over it when you could hire some one to do for you, 
was a palpable piece of absurdity to him ; but he care- 
fully kept this opinion to himself and pretended to be an 
ardent angler ; yet no sooner was his line over and on 
the bottom than Johnnie would begin to nod, his pipe, 
if lighted, would remain in his mouth by some special 
sense, and Johnnie would be far away in the land of 
dreams. He would sail in from the outer fishing grounds 
before the wind, the tiller under his arm, and he fast 
asleep ; yet when the boat " yawned " and gave evi- 
dence of jibing Captain Johnnie always awoke just in 
time, changed the course and promptly fell asleep again. 
To-day Johnnie sat and held his line, and slept, and 
the boys watched him and tried to conjure up some joke 
that had not been attempted before, it being difficult to 
trick this particular fisherman who had a way of waking 
up, as the Commodore said, " on the inside ; " that is, 
he did not open his eyes when he awoke, but merely an- 
nounced that he was not asleep. So Johnnie slept on, 



66 THE BOY ANGLERS 

puffing like a porpoise, a peculiar feat that soon shot out 
the tobacco from his pipe like a diminutive Pelee, and, as 
the boys had about decided to haul up his line and put 
on a dead albacore, something intervened, the some- 
thing jerking his Hne so desperately that it brought him 
to his feet, staring wildly at the rushing line that leaped 
over the rail like a snake. 

" Is it foul the propeller ?" cried Johnnie, blinking. 

" Propeller ! " replied the Commodore with a great 
show of disgust, " why, we're anchored, ye bilgeree. 
Luk out for yer legs," he added, and Johnnie dodged a 
coil and danced a hornpipe to avoid the line, then sprang 
at it, calling to Joe to cast off the rope, which was done, 
Johnnie settling back as the boat swung around. 

" It all comes from yer fishin' with a hand-line. 
Ye're an obstinate creature, Johnnie Graley," said the 
Commodore reeling in his line. " YeVe got an old nine- 
fathom porpoise on." 

" Porpoise blazes," responded Johnnie, red in the 
face to the point of apoplexy ; '' bass and the king." 

" Did ye ever see a bass bite like that, eh, Joe .?" 
asked the Commodore. 

" It's not my fish," replied Joe diplomatically ; " but 
if it was, an' I was asked, I'd say a shark." » 

A shark it was, and a swivel-tail at that, as five min- 
utes later it came to the surface, where it lashed the 
water with its tremendous tail and made a splendid dis- 
play of strength. Johnnie, already weary, handed the 
line to the boys who quickly discovered what power a 



FISHING IN AN OCEAN FOREST 67 

large shark possesses. After plunging about it went to the 
bottom and set a pace for deep water, carrying them 
along at a four-mile rate. Down by Church Rock they 
passed j then, as the shark showed evidence of taking 




Thresher shark. 



them to sea, all hands laid on and soon had the monster 
at the surface where it rolled and twisted, gnashing its 
fierce jaws, displaying row after row of teeth — an extra- 
ordinary creature with the upper lobe of its tail lengthened 
out as long as its body. Finally it was brought along- 
side, and as the shark was a very large one it was decided 
6 



6S 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



to tow it inshore and give it to an old longshoreman who 
collected shark liver as a business. 




Lamp-shells hooked up at Santa Catalina. 

As they drifted, Jack, dropping his line to the bottom 
in very deep water, hooked up a number of singular objects. 



FISHING IN AN OCEAN FOREST 69 

one of which proved to be the lamp shell. Joe discov- 
ered a remora or sucking fish on the shark, and pulling it 
off, placed it in a bucket to show how firmly it could 
hold by the curious sucker upon the top of its head. 
There was always some attraction or beautiful object in 
sight in these waters. Tom's line fouled a charming 
jellyfish, known as the Physophora, and it was lifted 
aboard and kept for some time that its beauties might 
be admired. One peculiarity was noted. It darted 
about in rapid flight in marked contrast to the ordinary 
jellies, a common one being a huge lavender form two 



The remora. 

feet across the disk and sometimes twenty or thirty feet 
in length, yet a very slow swimmer and easily captured 
by whales. 

As they drifted Joe sighted some white sea-bass, one 
of the finest game fishes in the sea. They displayed no 
fear, coming within fifteen or twenty feet of the boat, and 
forming a most enticing spectacle to the anglers. Ap- 
parently, none of the bass were less than four feet in 
length, and as far as the boys could see down in the deep 
water they were in layers, slowly moving on. Tom, 
Jack, and their father reached for their rods, and Joe and 



70 



THE BOY ANGLERS 




^av 



M 



An active jellyfish. 



Johnnie deftly changed 
the black sea bass lead- 
ers to a number 7/0 
O'Shaughnessy hook 
with leaders of wire a 
foot in length. To this 
was baited a smelt, and 
if one had watched 
carefully it would have 
been seen that the point 
of the hook was put in 
the mouth of the bait 
and run through it, the 
hook then turned and 
buried in the belly of 
the smelt ; then the 
mouth of the latter 
was fastened with a 
small wire and tied to 
the shank of the hook 
and the bait was ready 
for trolling or casting. 
It did not take more 
than a few moments 
to change the hooks 
as the latter were all 
baited; there being 
perfect system on the 
launch they were pre- 



FISHING IN AN OCEAN FOREST 71 

pared for any game all the time, and all knew that it 
was the unexpected that was to happen. The Angler 
was given the cast of honor, and with a deft motion, 
having his bait reeled up as far as possible, he dropped 
it fairly into the school fifty feet away, then reeling 
gently, made it simulate life. Not a bass moved, not 
a tail turned, and the Commodore later said that not a 
fish even winked. Again the Angler landed his bait, 
this time allowing it to lie like a dead fish, and what an 
enticing lure it was ! shining like silver against the deep 
blue of the water — a fascinating object, yet disdained by 
this rare and splendid game. 

"Joe," said Mr. Temple, "this is certainly not my day. 
Try it, boys," and out went two fresh baits, one a sardine, 
one a bunch of anchovies. Whish ! and the water boiled as 
though struck by a whirlwind. A bass had charged but 
stopped at the bait, refusing it, and the silver fish sank 
into the throng, not merely without being noticed but 
absolutely disdained. 

" This beats everything I ever see," said the Com- 
modore ; " did ye spit on the bait, Joe ?" 

" Whatever d'ye take me for ? " answered the latter. 
" Of course I did." 

" Well, it beats me," said the old man, scratching his 
head as though in search of an idea. 

" It don't beat me," Joe retorted. " Reel, Jack, and 
try this," and Joe took the end of his line and fastened a 
fresh snood or leader with a flying fish at least a foot long, 
as bait. *' Put it right into them," he said, winking. 



72 THE BOY ANGLERS 

" Why, that would stampede the whole school," 
answered Tom. 

But Jack reeled in his line, got the big bait at the tip 
of his rod and cast with both hands. The bait fell with 
a crash and before the water cleared it seemed to break 
out into an eruption. Three bass had fairly leaped for 
it, and one had the bait plainly ; then, feeling the hook, 
it made a rush, to so loud and musical an accompaniment 
on the reel that every one of the crew felt like dancing. 

" O, ho ! the gallant fishers that we are !" cried the 
Commodore. " Joe, ye're a past master in baitin' hooks, 
ril give in to ye there," and he slapped the big broad 
back of the gaffer a sounding whack. 

The bass made a clean rush of perhaps one hundred 
and fifty feet, then stopped, and rose to the surface with 
a bound, cut around two hundred feet so that Jack darted 
to the mast and swung around to save the line from foul- 
ing, then bearing away in such splendid form that the 
young angler was forced to give, inch by inch, to save 
his tackle. 

" Good boy. Jack," cried his father ; " there's where 
good judgment comes in. It is like playing a piano to 
press on that leather pad in just the right key, so that 
you will not break the line. But excuse me for speak- 
ing to you," added Mr. Temple. " Never talk to the 
angler, the man behind the reel, when a fish is on, espe- 
cially a large one." 

Jack played his fish like a master, as indeed he was, 
holding up the rod when the fish made a rush, never 



FISHING IN AN OCEAN FOREST 73 

giving slack; now pressing just the right force on the 
leather pad, now reenforcing on the upper line, then, as 
occasion offered, jumping the right hand from brake to 
reel handle, and winding feet and yards on the big mul- 
tiplier, bringing the game nearer the end. Ah, the ex- 
citement of it, the splendor of the whole performance ! 
The boat and sea were Jack's stage, and he and the big 
bass were the stars — matched one against the other. Now 
the bass was in the lead, cutting the blue water, an object 
of beauty, a joy forever; now threatening to break the 
tackle, again skilfully stopped and brought in inch by 
inch, a fine fighter, every pound a game fish, always on 
the alert, and giving the angler the play of his life. How 
it surged and bore away in splendid curves ! How it 
plunged down to the music of the reel ! Not a man in 
the boat, not a boy (they were all boys, young and old), 
but had a personal interest in this struggle of human 
skill on the one hand and a game fish on the other. 
Here was an illustration of true manly sport. The 
white sea bass had all the advantage in the duel; the 
line was an absurd thing, a mere thread, to hold so 
large a fish — a twelve-thread cuttyhunk — while the rod 
weighed but twelve ounces and had three joints. The 
slightest mistake in judgment would have terminated the 
contest, but the fates were with the angler, and in a few 
moments he brought the fish to boat. Joe gaffed it, and 
held it up for one happy moment, that they might see 
and feast their eyes on its beauties. 

" Oh, that is sport," said Jack, and, with extraordi- 



74 THE BOY ANGLERS 

nary magnanimity, " I wish you all could have played 
him ! " 

" Blither and zounds ! " exclaimed the Commodore. 
" I felt every pull myself, an' didn't he put a quart of 
sea water doon me back ? Ah, he's a bonnie feesh that, 
a bonnie feesh indeed," and when Joe despatched it and 
held it up on the scales it tipped them to the sixty-four- 
pound mark. Very much the shape of a salmon, well 
proportioned was the white sea-bass, Cynoscion nobilis^ the 
cousin of the Atlantic weakfish, one of the noblest of 
all game fishes, and quite as difficult to take as the 
salmon, being very •' whimsy," as the Commodore put 
it — sometimes biting, sometimes refusing, and appearing 
in numbers only from. May first, or thereabouts, to July, 
and sometimes not at all. The fish ranges as far north 
as San Francisco ; attains a weight of one hundred 
pounds, possibly more. 

" We'll bake him to-night on the beach, eh ? " 
Johnnie suggested, throwing a piece of canvas over the 
fish. " Baked on hot stones with potaters and crawfish 
and " 

" Hold on, Johnnie," interrupted Tom ; " don't en- 
courage my appetite until we get in — I can't stand it." 

As a sea was now picking up they got under way 
and ran around into the lee of the island, where they 
joined a fleet of fishing boats, each containing two ang- 
lers, their masts decorated with various strange flags. 
Here the water was smooth — a peculiarity of this island, 
the mainland of California being exposed to the prevail- 



FISHING IN AN OCEAN FOREST 75 

ing west wind and nearly always rough, splendid water 
for sailing or trolling with hand lines but not adapted 
to the angler with the light rod. Here, on the north 
and east face of this oceanic mountain range there were 
twenty-two miles of nooks and corners, rocky bays 
generally smooth, often perfectly so, the sea like a mir- 
ror, and affording a water only to be compared to the 
mighty St. Lawrence, where calms and clear waters 
form the main feature of the delights of anglers. 

Tom and Jack were fortunate in being lovers of 
nature for nature alone. They saw something to enjoy 
in everything — the color of the mountains, the hue of 
the rocks, the blending of the neutral tints, the splendid 
tone and life of the ocean as its lungs seemed to rise in 
the ground-swell, all this had a charm, and so they 
always had good luck ; not always in big fish, but in the 
fullness of nature's offerings. 

Running into Avalon later the black sea-bass was 
taken in, and with the aid of Vincente, the head fisher- 
man, and his men, hoisted up on Joe's stand and found 
to tip the scales at 270 pounds, attracting more than or- 
dinary attention when it was noised about that this large 
fish had also been taken by a boy. Several boys have 
taken these giants of the sea in the fashion described and 
in the most sportsmanlike manner. The accompanying 
photograph shows the record boys' catch of Santa Catal- 
ina Island and the world — a bass weighing 324 pounds, 
taken by Henry Ellsworth Paine, of Cleveland, Ohio. 
The fish v/as caught with the rod and reel, the latter 



76 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



holding a twenty-four thread or strand line ; and after a 
fast fight which would have placed many men with un- 
tried muscles hors de 
comhat^ he brought the 
fish to gaff just fifty 
minutes from the time 
he hooked it. This is, 
in all probability, not 
only the boys' record 
for black sea-bass, but 
the largest game fish 
of any kind taken by 
a boy in a sportsman- 
like manner, and by 
this is meant the tackle 
described and allowed 
by the Tuna Club of 
Avalon, and with ab- 
solutely no assistance 
from boatman or gaffer 
until the latter reached 
it with his gaff. 
The extraordinary power and strength of these fishes 
can be realized only by those who have tried to play 
them. How large they grow is not known, but doubt- 
less they attain one thousand pounds in the Gulf of Cal- 
ifornia, which seems to be a favorite ground for them. 

The Torqua sailed into the canon that afternoon 
with colors flying, and the big flag bearing the white figure 




The record boys' catch of black 
sea-bass. 



FISHING IN AN OCEAN FOREST ^^ 

of a bass at the fore told the story to those in camp. 
At night, when the camp-fire began to blaze and cast 
lurid shadows all about, brightening the sides of the 
caiion, they sat around it and agam told and retold the 
pleasures of the day. Johnnie had early dug a hole in 
the beach, lining it with flat stones, forming a pit, and 
in this he built a fire of driftwood. After it had been 
burning some time he cleared it out, lined it with sea- 
weed, and wrapping the white sea-bass in wet thick 
brown paper, placed it on the hot stones, then covered it 
with more sea-weed, putting in crayfish and potatoes as 
well, and as they sat by the camp-fire the savory odors 
came wafting up the caiion. foretelling the joys of a 
fish bake. Later when Johnnie and Joe passed around 
the baked white sea-bass and the tender young crayfish, 
the " bake " was pronounced a success, and fit for the 
gods. 

" Did you ever see the Flying Dutchman in your 
trips round the Horn ? " asked Jack, as Johnnie threw 
another log on the fire. 

" Flyin' Dutchman ! " repeated Johnnie, dividing up 
a piece of crayfish for the greyhound and fox terrier that 
had joined the group. " You don't have to go to the 
Horn to see them, eh, Joe ?*' 

" All the Dutchmen I know, like Pete, are too heavy 
to fly," said the matter-of-fact Joe. 

" He manes a goost ship," explained Johnnie. 
" Didn't ye ever hear of the ship that bate up and down 
off the Cape and never rounded it ? " 



78 THE BOY ANGLERS 

" No, I never did," replied Joe. 

" But you've heard of the ship that bates up and 
down this coast ? " persisted Johnnie. 

" Yes, I have," Joe answered , " but what's the use 
of talkin' about it ? We're here to fish, ain't we ? " 

" Let's have it, Johnnie," said the Commodore. " If 
it's a ghost story let's have it." 

" It's worse nor that," said Johnnie, looking around 
with a furtive air which made Joe also peer into the 
darkness, being just a trifle superstitious. " Ye all 
know," began Johnnie, in a sepulchral tone adapted to 
the situation, " the Ship Rock off the northeast end of 
the island ? We've fished there a hape of times, an' ye 
all know that when ye look up, kind of sudden like, 
when a few miles away, ye see a full-rigged ship, a reg- 
ular old wind-jammer with everything on her and all 
drawin', too. Ain't that so, sir ? " appealing to the Ang- 
ler, who sat with his face in his hands looking into the 
coals and enjoying the scene and the talk. 

" Yes, I've seen her many times and thought it was 
a ship," was the reply. 

" That's the pint, sir ; it is a ship. When yer fishin' 
alongside of it it's a rock, an' the tide sets along there 
like a mill-race, an' you see the old Ship Rock white as 
snow with the guano, and see the birds a-roostin' on it ; 
but when ye haul off, why, she gets under way. I was 
fishin' there a year ago," continued Johnnie, " with a 
man ; an' we kept runnin' up and driftin' down by the 
Ship Rock, an' all at once a fog come blowin' in' an' kind 



FISHING IN AN OCEAN FOREST 79 

o' hid it, an' I heard jest as plain as I hear that log a 
crackin', some one sing out, ' Weigh anchor ! ' then a 
boatswain's whistle ; then I heard the capstan clankin', 
then more orders, then the fog lifted, and there was the 
old rock not two hundred feet away ; we mighty nigh 
drifted onto it. I says to the gintleman I was rowin', 
' Did ye hear anything quare, sir ? ' 'I thought I heard 
the rattlin' of a ship's sails,' says he. But that's noth- 
ing," continued Johnnie, after a brief pause, during 
which no one spoke, " ye all know Donovan, that lives 
up beyond ? One night I was sittin' in me shack at 
the Isthmus when I heard a wild cry like, up the coast. 
' What's that ? ' says the man I was fishin' for, sittin' up 
in his bunk. Then it come again, a cry like — like the 
wail of a lost soul, a cry of the dead," looking at Joe. 
" It's a hail,' says the gintleman. ' Bar the door,' says I. 
' No livin' man's out sich a night as this,' blowin' as it 
was. ' But it may be some wan,' says he. Then we 
heard it again, comin' down the wind, an' something 
seemed to take the shack in its hands and shake it. ' Bar 
the door,' says I. ' Open it,' says he ; ' ye're not 
afraid, are ye, Gravley ? ' says he. ' No,' says I ; ' but 
I've the caution that goes with a long head.' With that 
he lept to his fate and pulls open the door, and in falls 
Donovan, white as a goost, and tremblin' all over. 
' What's the matter? ' says I ; ' who's after ye ? ' 'Bar 
the door,' says Donovan, and he fell into a chair while I 
put the bar in. After he had some hot coffee, he says, 
' Johnnie, I've seen that I've never seen before. D'ye 



8o THE BOY ANGLERS 

mind the hanted house on the hill.' ' Yes,' I says. ' It 
was blowin' so,' says he, ' that I ran into Bouchet's an' 
made up mind that I'd stay there ; but the rain drove 
me out, an' I started down the trail for here, an' when 
I got to the water it was blowin' a hurricane, an' as I 
turned down I heard a voice comin' down the wind, 
"Ready about, stations for stays. Hard a lee! " then a 
clash of blocks an' the rattlin' of sails right by me side. 
I was fifty feet above the water, an' as I looked I saw a 
big ship lookin' like a pale flame. I see every sail, an' 
she had stunsails on her an' it blowin' a hurricane. I 
see her pay off; I see her yards square away, an' she 
moved down the island. D'ye mind the bar there 
below Johnson's rocks ? not five feet underwater, rocks 
like teeth, that no ship could cross an' not a cable's 
length ahead of her, so I let out a hail, " Ship ahoy ! 
ahoy there ! starboard yer helm ; ship ahoy ! " ' That's 
what we heard,' says the fisherman. ' Yes,' says Dono- 
van ; ' but on she went, a keelin' over so that her fore- 
yards were in the water an' the wind blowin' a hurri- 
cane. I missed the trail, fell over the rocks an' cactus, 
picked meself up an' come out on the pint just as she 
got to the reef. " Ship ahoy!" I yelled. " Hard a star- 
board fur yer life ! " and then — ' Yes, and then,' says I, 
' then she went clear over the reef, an' I lost sight of 
her ; she sailed away with everything a-drawin' and 
never touched it.' ' Did you see any wan on deck ? ' 
says I. ' I did not,' says Donovan ; ' there wasn't a 
soul in sight, an' I saw her as plain as I see ye, Johnnie 



FISHING IN AN OCEAN FOREST 8i 

Grayley,' " and Johnnie stopped so suddenly that Joe 
started and glanced furtively at the sea, while the boys 
broke into peals of laughter, not so much at the yarn as 
at the dramatic way in which it had been told, around 
the dying camp-fire, and the evident effect it had upon 
Joe. 



CHAPTER V 

A DAY WITH YELLOWTAIL 

The day following the catch of the big bass the boys 
made a trip up the canon after foxes, taking the two 
dogs with them — an enjoyable climb up the steep 
mountains which gave them a fine view of the blue 
channel and the snow-capped peaks of Mounts San 
Antonio and San Jacinto sixty miles or more distant 
in the Sierra Madre. They followed the sheep trail, 
finding much to interest them. Scurrying beneath the 
holly bushes and scrub oak innumerable bands of quail 
were seen, the males with jaunty head plumes, sounding 
their sweet call that was answered from others far away 
across the canon. On the side of the canon, lumbering 
along. Jack discovered a huge tarantula which ran 
quickly into its hole at his approach, and near by he 
found the clever nest of the trap-door spider, which was 
added to the collection of insects, taking the nest out 
carefully by digging. Under the stones some distance 
on several small scorpions were unearthed, and in the 
canon bed where there was but a suspicion of water was 
caught an enormous water-bug bearing upon its back a 
covering of eggs which protected it like an armor, giv- 
82 



A DAY WITH YELLOWTAIL 



83 



ing it a most singular appearance. Lizards scampered 
here and there ; one, with a rich blue spot upon its 
breast, eying them from the rocks and lifting itself up 




California quail, 



84 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



quickly as though to flash its brilliant color at them. 
In their home the boys had a museum, and they were 
making collections in various departments of zoology 




A giant spider. 

for the purpose of study. They preserved their own 
specimens, and could skin and mount birds and small 
animals. 

In this way they wandered along, occasionally climb- 
ing the low trees to look into a humming-bird's nest, or 
lying flat on the ground to study the trail or track of 
some animal or insect until they came out upon the di- 
vide overlooking the camp. As they came in sight of 
the latter, some one uttered a loud hail, and the boys 



A DAY WITH YELLOWTAIL 



85 



saw the Commodore and their father running down to 
the beach, shouting as they ran. A glance at the little 
bay told the story. Some large fish, or a school, had 
entered it, and the ordinarily smooth harbor appeared 
like a maelstrom, so covered with foam was it. Tom 
and Jack stood not on the order of going, but ran as 
best they could, burdened with specimens, back to 
camp ; th^re dropping their loads and snatching up their 
rods they hastened to the beach 
to find their father casting and 
the Commodore, his line in a 
tangle, dancing about and call- 
ing down maledictions upon his 
luck, while Johnnie and Joe 
gathered up sardines which 
were leaping on the sands, 
throwing them up for bait. A 
school of yellowtails had chased 
in a school of sardines and was 
playing havoc with the small 
fry. Tom hurriedly hooked a 
sardine on his line, laughing at 
the Commodore's struggles and 
despair, and cast from the 
beach forty or fifty feet. The moment the bait struck 
zee-ee-ee-e-e ! went the reel, and never had it made a 
more vigorous protest. Then Jack's reel took up the 
strain, while Mr. Temple's was muttering a low bass as 
he put on the brake. Tom's fish took him down the 




Giant water-bug with 
eggs on its back. 



86 THE BOY ANGLERS 

beach in a splendid run, then charging directly out, 
breaking the line so cleverly that he never could ex- 
plain it. 

" Blither and zounds ! Johnnie ! '* exclaimed the 
Commodore; " ye've had me rod; luk at this mess," and 
he threw the tangled line upon the beach in disgust, 
shaking his fist at it. 

Zip-ze-ee ! went Jack's reel ; zip-ting-g-g ! and the 
line went, only Mr. Temple holding his fish, and it had 
two hundred feet of line and was aiming to saw it off 
on the rocks, so he sprang into the skifF and Joe rowed 
him out clear of the point, where he presently landed a 
splendid yellowtail. Like a beam of light the yellow- 
tails had rushed in, and they were off as quickly, the 
little bay soon becoming as smooth as a lake again. Mr. 
Temple got aboard the launch and Johnnie rowed in 
after the boys and the Commodore, who now had a 
new line, and they all went aboard and started after the 
school. 

" I've caught a lot of yellowtail," said Joe, " but I 
don't believe I ever saw such a school of big strong 
fellows. Yours weighs most forty pounds, sir," and 
Joe held up the beautiful fish, shaped something like a 
salmon but with a mackerel-like tail, a vivid yellow, 
yellow fins and median line ; its back green in the 
water and an iridescent blue out of it, the belly white or 
silver. 

" I consider the yellowtail the hardest fighter among 
fishes," said the Angler, " and I've caught almost every- 



A DAY WITH YELLOWTAIL 87 

thing. If you wish to test it, boys, rig up a salmon rod 
— I mean a typical one nine or ten feet long, and take 
my old non-multiplying salmon reel and try to catch a 
yellowtail. I venture to say that it would take hours if 
you could do it at all. That is why it is necessary to 
have a short rod for these fish, as they are extremely 
powerful and you must have a rod with which you can 
lift a sulker." 

The rods Tom and Jack were using were about 
seven feet long, in two joints, and, while light, were suf- 
ficient to lift a sulking fish ranging up to fifty pounds. 
The lines were twelve strand, light enough to place the 
angler at a disadvantage, the hook a number seven 
O'Shaughnessy. As soon as the Torqua cleared the 
point the boys took their seats in the stern and began to 
pay out line, slacking off about seventy feet, while 
Johnnie Grayley put the launch at about quarter speed, 
and they trolled slowly along twenty feet or so outside 
the kelp bed, a fishing ground with every charm. High 
cliffs rose to the left, now breaking mto a green mesa 
that sloped upward and merged into higher mountains. 
The water was of that intense blue that can only be 
imitated by the liberal use of pure cobalt. Hardly a rip- 
ple disturbed the surface save where a group of flying- 
fishes were seen playing, or a sea-bass cut the water 
with its dorsal fin. The launch moved in and out of 
little undulations of the coast in following the kelp bed, 
and the anglers always had this attractive garden of the 
sea in sight — masses of waving green laminarian vines 



88 THE BOY ANGLERS 

about which poised countless rich blue fishes or others 
in deep red gold tints, telling of the golden angel-fish 
that lived in this fishes' highway. As the launch came 
out of a little snug harbor Jack's reel sang the note of 
distress— zee-e-e-e-e-e ! 

" No mistaking that," said Tom. " Go for him, 
Jacky ; go for him ! " 

But something was going for Jack, as, despite his 
best efforts to hold up his rod, it was bowing and 
bending and shaking at some invisible foe in a re- 
markable manner, while the reel sang the music loved 
best by the angler. 

"I believe I could sing to that," said Tom, "and 
I'm going to write some words to the song of the reel 
some day." 

Zee-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-zip-zip ! sang the reel, and 
the rod was fairly jerked, tip down, to the water, Jack 
pressing upon the leather brake with all the force he dared 
apply. No fish of its size and weight makes so gallant a 
burst of speed when hooked as the yellowtail, and Jack's 
fish was no exception to the rule, boring down again, ris- 
ing and dashing across the field, the angler keeping the 
rod nodding and bending like a living thing. But Jack 
always met his charges ; his thumb played on the brake 
at just the right tension, and he eased it by touching the 
upper line with his guarded thumb or stall. The looker- 
on would have seen that he was fighting the fish all the 
time in some way, never allowing it to get its '' second 
wind," which is often fatal to the prospects of the angler. 



A DAY WITH YELLOWTAIL 89 

When the fish rushed, as it did repeatedly, he gave way 
gently. The moment it ceased, his right hand slipped 
to the reel and so he gained a foot or two, and then drop- 
ping his tip the young angler gave a mighty lift, raising 
the fish bodily, the rod bending and a terrific strain put 
upon the line. Up it came, the very king of sulkers, and 
when the rod was almost erect Jack dropped the point 
and quickly slipping his right hand to the reel took in six 
or seven feet of line, and before the yellowtail was aware 
what had happened down dropped the tip again ; this was 
cleverly repeated rapidly time and again, the gamy fish 
being " pumped " up — the only way it could be moved. 
Suddenly the operation ceased ; the fish ran in a foot or 
two, turned and plunged down with the marvelous, irre- 
sistible force for which it is famous, and loudly sang the 
reel — zee-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e, the song that stirs the blood, 
the music the angler loves. 

" I see him !" shouted the Commodore ; " a star in the 
sky of the water. He's a beauty. See him sheer ofi\, 
side on, makin' the fight of his life. There's a rush for 
ye ! zeee-eee-zip ! shure he almost had ye then ! gallant 
angler that ye are !" sang and laughed the Commodore. 
" Wance more ; ye're feeshin' almost as well as meself. 
Now, then, all together ! " 

But zip-zee-e-e ! went the reel, and away went the 
fish, now plainly seen in the splendid burst of speed, 
dashing almost around the boat, taking Jack to his feet to 
pull him down again to his knees, all so quickly that he 
appeared to be waving a wand or single stick instead of 



90 THE BOY ANGLERS 

a rod. " Here he is," and fairly on the surface came the 
yellowtail. 

** At once he darts along. 

Deep struck, and runs out all the lengthened line.** 

Coursing along on top of the water like a greyhound, 
a gallant fish, not discouraged, though almost within reach 
of the cruel gaff. How it bounded along ! flashing yel- 
low, gold, and green 5 its big eyes, bright, gleaming, a 
splendid creature. No "quitter" it; so far as it was 
concerned, the fight had just begun ; but the fates were 
against it, and while In the very toils it made the best 
rush of all, tearing off the line to the wild cry of the reel 
whose brazen throat uttered strange and guttural protests. 
In it comes again to the bravo s of the lookers-on ; Jack's 
face beaming, every pore weeping, his hat off, his arms, 
indeed every muscle, aching in this struggle against cer- 
tainly a fifty-pound fish with a mere thread. In it comes, 
pumped, reeled in, and Joe leans forward with the gaff as 
Jack cleverly gives it the butt and turns it forward. But 
just then Jack surrendered, and all the true sportsman's 
blood surged to his heart. " Hold on, Joe, no gaff!" 

" What ! " exclaimed Joe, amazed, as he allowed the 
fish to pass him. 

" Grab the leader ! " cried Jack. 

Joe did as told and held the splendid fish while Jack 
handed his rod to his brother and leaped into the cock- 
pit. " Let me have him," he said, and he took the 
struggling yellowtail by the leader and lifted it, to test 



A DAY WITH YELLOWTAIL 91 

its weight, guessing fifty-five pounds. The fish was 
over four feet in length, and having taken in all its 
beauties for a moment. Jack dexterously cut away the 
hook and flung the gamy creature back into the sea. 

" Fm glad to see you animated by such a spirit. 
Jack," said the Angler, in a pleased tone, nodding ap- 
proval. 

" Good for ye ! " commended the Commodore, 
" ye're a true sportin' gentleman." 

" Well," said Jack, still breathless, "I just couldn't 
kill a fish that fought me like that ; he deserved to get 
away." 

" Right you are," Tom retorted ; " but he was a 
corker. I never saw so big a fellow." 

" That is the true principle in fishing," said the 
Angler. " The sport is legitimate within limits. You 
are entitled to catch a certain number offish, four or five, 
for sport, I would say, or more if they can be used by 
some one ; but this killing just to see how many you 
can bring in, is an outrage on the rights of animals, as 
they have rights the same as ourselves. The yellowtail 
is a queer fish," continued the Angler. " I have hooked 
the same fish three times in a day, so I cannot think 
they suffer much, or any for that matter. They struggle 
because they are alarmed and are wild at being caught." 

The Torqua now ran up the shore and Tom also 
caught a fish which was released. When off Long Point 
they stopped and drifted with the current, both fishermen 
casting. To the north they could see Ship Rock — a 



92 THE BOY ANGLERS 

wonderful imitation of a full-rigged ship headed for the 
rocks under full sail, the long line of rocky coast, and the 
great point which rose gradually, reaching upward to 
lofty hilltops which rested in the soft blue haze of the 
upper range. 

" Such a day brings out all the poetry In a man," 
said the Angler, lying back and puffing at his pipe while 
the boys cast their lines toward the kelp. 

'^ Aye, aye, it do, sir," responded the Commodore ; 
then, in a very deep, very cracked and very ancient 
voice, to a very impossible tune, he began to sing : 

" Oh ! the gallant fisher's life. 
It is the best of any ; 
*Tis full of pleasure, void of strife. 
And 'tis beloved by many. 
Other joys 

Are but toys ; ^ 

Only this 
Lawful is. 
For our skill 
Breeds no ill, 
* - But content and pleasure.'* 

" Excellent," said the Angler, smiling, as the Com- 
modore concluded ; " an old song, ' The Angler,' by 
John Chalkhill, a fellow angler of Spenser." 

" So ? " replied the Commodore. " I heard my father 
sing it a-feeshin' when I was a lad like yonder. I remem- 
ber another song that goes this way : 



A DAY WITH YELLOWTAIL 93 

** Of all the recreations which 

Attend on human nature. 
There's none that's of so high a pitch 

Or is of such a stature 
As is the subtle angler's Hfe 

In all men's approbation ; 
For angling tricks do daily mix 

In every occupation." 

" Yes, I know it well," said the Angler, upon which 
the Commodore began the second verse : 

** Thus have I made my anglers' trade 

To stand above defiance. 
For, like the mathemadc art. 

It runs through every science. 
If with my angling song I can 

To mirth and pleasure seize you, 
I'll bait my hook with wit again 

And angle still to please you." 

" You will find much that is good in old angling 
verses," continued the Angler, " references to nature, to 
the charm of the sea, forest and lake, thus : 

** But if we find the inmates shy 

And cautious past enduring. 
Full many a skilful trick we try 

To draw them to our luring. 
For fish, like men, full nine in ten. 

Have very strange vagaries ; 
They leap on high to catch the fly. 

Then sink to where fresh fare is." 



94 THE BOY ANGLERS 

" Pope wrote some attractive lines on angling, espe- 
cially those on ' Windsor Forest ' " 

'' What's this ? " shouted Tom, interrupting the 
poetry and trying to lift his rod. 

" Shark," Joe answered, briefly. 

Tom's rod was bending, the reel screaming, and it 
continued until he had lost three hundred feet offline; 
then, far away on the surface, near the kelp, rose a big 
black head, a sea-lion. 

" Blither and zounds ! " exclaimed the Commodore, 
" what next ? A regular black mermaid." 

The sea-lion was hooked, there was no doubt of it, 
and after a run he had been forced to the surface, 
where, after taking a look at the boat, he, evidently, as 
Johnnie Grayley said, sized up the situation and bit off 
the hook. A moment later they saw a large bull sea- 
lion crawl upon White Rock and join the rest of the 
herd, so they concluded it was the same one. 

" I've caught some quare things here," said Johnnie, 
" but never a sea-lion. I've hooked a seal, a gull, a 
dolphin, a sea-eagle, a whale, all trollin'." 

" Ye never caught a mermaid, I reckon," said the 
Commodore. 

" No, I never did," replied Johnnie, " but I've 
caught cats on the Mississippi, with a jug, that weighed 
a thousand pounds." 

"The jug or the cats?" asked Jack, laughing. 

" All yer big catches are made in foreign parts, I 
notice," said the Commodore, sniffing ; " they're so far 



A DAY WITH YELLOWTAIL 



95 



off that ye can't prove it by mortal man. All that saw 
the catch is dead, I'll wager." 

" Shure they are," retorted Johnnie, blandly, " but 



" Well, we'll hear it to-night," said the Commodore, 
reeling up his line. " In, sir ? " 

The Angler assented and in a few moments the Tor- 
qua had turned down the coast and was driving the fly- 
ing-fishes out of the water on either side on the way 
home. 

" We might pick up some of these for bait," said 
Tom, and taking his gun he sat on the fore-deck and as 




:5noutiDg riying-nsn at Santa L'atalina. 

a flying-fish rose like a quail he brought it down quite 
cleverly. The Commodore put the boat alongside and 
Joe picked up the game with a hand-net, and in this way 



96 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



two other flying-fishes were secured for tuna bait, a 
strange and original sport peculiar to this isle of summer. 
Many boys of all ages have made fine catches of 
yellowtail at Santa Catalina with rod and reel in the man- 
ner described, and the bay of Avalon is frequently filled 



fPfweuru 



M^Prrf*^'^''''" 




The record boys' catch of yellowi 



with boats of the young disciples of Walton. In the 
accompanying illustration is seen the catch of a boy, 
John Howard Paine, one of three brothers all of whom 
hold records as sea anglers. He took fifteen yellowtails 
which averaged over twenty pounds each, all of which 



A DAY WITH YELLOWTAIL 97 

were used or eaten. With these were nine barracudas, 
shown in the upper part of the figure. The Torqua 
ran into the canon just at dusk, and, later, Johnnie 
Grayley was induced to tell his story of the thousand- 
pound catfish. 

" A true tale, is it, Johnnie ?" asked the Commodore. 

" Ain't all my yarns true ? " retorted Johnnie, at 
which the Commodore raised his hands and rolled his 
eyes upward. 

Jack and Tom were cleaning their reels ; Joe was 
making new leaders with the Commodore, and Captain 
Johnnie at his favorite occupation, barbecuing a shoulder 
of kid, while Mr. Temple and his wife sat and enjoyed 
the camp-fire, laughing quietly at the remarks of Johnnie 
and the Commodore, the two always engaging in a 
good-natured wrangle. 

" It's a waste of good language to tell a yarn to you. 
Mister Busby," said Johnnie. " Ye have no faith, 
that's the issence of fish stories ; ye've got to have faith." 

" Blither and zounds ! is that all ? Go on, Mister 
Grayley, I've that faith, that I'm reekin' with it." 

" D'ye mind the Mississippi," began Johnnie, turn- 
ing the pole and putting his hand between his face and 
the fire, "where it runs through Arkansas ? Well, it was 
there I was brought up, an' I'll have to tell ye me father 
was an Irishman before he came to America. Catfish 
was the game fish, and sugarcane and rice the food 
with a few swate potaties. A great thing, sugarcane ; 
there's where we got sugar, and a piece to chew was a 



98 THE BOY ANGLERS 

good lunch ; then when things went wrong me father 
used about six foot of it as a persuader, and in the 
winter we burned the old crushed stalks for wood. 
Wan spring I went fishin' for cats — juggin', we called it, 
as we used jugs — when I was near pulled out of me boat 
by a bite and lost me line. The next day I tried it 
again, with the same luck ; the fish towed me tin miles 
down the river, then got away. I tuk the steamboat 
back and when I got there I found the whole settlement 
worked up ; but I was bound to get that fish, so I got a 
big rope and a shark hook; then we fastened the line to 
the top of a big pine and waited." 

" What bait did ye use ? '* interrupted the Commo- 
dore. 

" Watermelons," replied Johnnie. '' As I was 
sayin', we sat on the bank waitin', as all fishermen do — 
bedad, it's mostly waitin' and expectin', I'm thinkin' — 
whin all to wance the line ran out ; it dragged four men 
into the river and kept goin', and then the end come 
and the strain on the pine, a hundred foot high, began, 
and, be the powers ! it began to bend and bend like a 
fishin' rod, and there's where that cat made a mistake ; 
if he'd kept on ten foot more he'd have broke the tree ; 
but he was naturally curus an' he stopped to look round, 
and bedad ! the tree flew back an' we saw something 
like a black cloud rise into the air and fly into the back 
country ; then a crash come, an' an awful groan. It 
was an hour before a lad of us dared to stir, an' then we 
crept back through the bush, and what d'ye spose we 



A DAY WITH YELLOWTAIL 99 

met ? Nothin' more'n less than the catfish comin' back 
through the bush makin' for the river. He was thirty 
foot long and that heavy that he broke down the brush 
and small trees as he crawled ; and his whiskers trailed 
behind him like snakes. We see he was fast, so we 
said nothin' and let him go, an' four times that cat tuk 
the river and four times that pine tree jerked him back, 
an' he finally gave up an' he got so tame that he fol- 
lowed us round like a dog, an' some nights he lay there 
in the corral an' sung a reg'ler song. But," said 
Johnnie, in conclusion, " he ended like all pets ; the old 
woman caught him wan mornin' with a chicken in his 
mouth an' we had to kill him, and that's how I come to 
know his weight ; he was a thousand pouns, dressed." 

The Commodore generally could retaliate, but he 
now merely looked at Johnnie in wild-eyed bewilder- 
ment. He was trying to think of some fish story that 
would crush out the remembrance of this yarn of the 
Mississippi, but for once he was silenced — Johnnie 
Grayley's cat was too much for him. 



^ ofC. 



CHAPTER VI 



TOWED THREE MILES 



Sunrise generally found Tom and Jack on the 
beach hunting for shells which had been washed ashore. 
There was always something new or of interest. Per- 
haps it was the curious barrow-like egs of the barn-door 




bea-slugs ot the kelp beds. 



skate, or, if low tide, they dug out the black sea-urchins 
from the holes in the rocks, or cut off the various kinds 
of barnacles which either floated in on pieces of drift or 
were living on rocks and stones. Beneath the kelp 
leaves they collected beautiful naked snails ; one es~ 



TOWED THREE MILES 



101 



peclally being of a deep purple hue. In the rocks were 
large chitons which they had to pry out, while many of 
the stones along the beach had round holes through 
them, so perfectly 
smooth that they ap- 
peared artificial; yet 
they were made by 
a rock-boring shell 
common in these 
waters. The most 
attractive objects 
along the beach were 
the patches of tube- 
making marine 
worms that were of- 
ten exposed at low 
tide, but when cov- 
ered, bloomed out 
like so many brill- 
iant flowers. 

On the morning 
in question, the boys 
were delayed by the 
bait-catchers, whose 
gill nets had been 
broken loose by some large fish ; but a supply was finally 
obtained from the purse-seine haulers, who made a haul 
for sardines near the caiion, taking a ton or more in the 
huge net which they ran out from the vessel — a power 




Rock-boring shells. 



102 THE BOY ANGLERS 

boat — surrounding a school and taking them literally by 
the ton. 

" Here they come ! " shouted Jack, as a boat pro- 
pelled by swarthy Italians appeared around the point. 
They ran in upon the beach and the men were soon 
shoveling out the fresh shining sardines and smelt into 



W 



'^'P^TFT 







Tame gulls of Santa Catalina. 

a box, the boys amusing themselves by feeding the brown 
pelicans that swam about a short distance away, and the 
gulls, that were so tame that Vincente, the head fisher- 
man, said that down at Avalon he could almost pick up 
some of them, as they crowded around him, snatching 
at the fish thrown at them, and presenting a most cu- 
rious spectacle. The gulls spent their winters at the 
island, but nearly all disappeared in the spring, going far 
away to nest. These birds are valuable scavengers along 



TOWED THREE MILES 103 

this coast, as it was never necessary for the men to clear 
the beach of dead lish. The moment it was left dozens 
of gulls settled down and carried it off. If a fish was 
thrown over and sank it was soon found and eaten by 
the sea-lions which came every afternoon from the rook- 
ery hard by and cleared the waters of all impurities^ 
so that it was excellent for bathing, although the profes- 
sional fishermen sometimes cleaned their fish there. Even 
floating fishes out at sea or alongshore were taken by 
the bald eagles which had preempted many of the points 
and were so numerous that the boys one morning counted 
sixty in about ten miles of coastline. These birds were 
valuable scavengers, and did not hesitate to steal from 
the osprey and other birds and occasionally stole bait ; 
they have been known also to dart at a troll bait and 
become hooked. 

A good supply of bait having been secured the party 
went aboard the launch, which very shortly was running 
offshore. Joe said the albacore were running about two 
miles out in the channel, a particularly fine fish resem- 
bling the tuna, and they decided to devote the day to this 
sport. The tackle used was identical with that de- 
scribed for yellowtail, the fish ranging in weight up to 
fifty or more pounds, yet requiring a stiff rod, as it 
was caught in the open sea. Tom and Jack had their 
lines out, baited with smelt, and as it is the unexpected 
that often happens Tom had a strike not one hundred 
yards from the kelp, a strike so fierce and telling that it 
fairly lifted him out of his seat. 



104 THE BOY ANGLERS 

" Tuna," said Joe. 

" Looks like it," the Commodore replied, as the reel 
screamed and raged when Jack pressed upon the brake 
vainly endeavoring to stay the melting line, Johnnie 
having stopped the engine and with Joe turning the launch 
with the oars. 

" Can't you stop him, Jack ? " asked the Angler. 

Zee-eee-ee long drawn out ! was the best answer, 
and four hundred feet of line slipped away before the 
fish was checked — a feat that satisfied the crew that Jack 
had picked up a stray tuna. The fish was taking the 
boat down the coast, slowly but surely, and it was some 
time before Jack could gain a foot, so impetuous were 
its rushes — plunging to the bottom, tearing away great 
lengths of line, rising to the surface and circling around 
to always return to its given direction down the coast. 
Time and again did Jack attempt to force the fighting, 
pumping and reeling, but at the end of three-quarters of 
an hour he was no nearer the fish than at first. At 
every attempt to reel the fish appeared to go into a 
frenzy, darting this way and that, and ending by plunging 
down deeper and deeper, forcing the conviction upon the 
anglers that it was a tuna of large size or a very gamy small 
fish. Jack, finding that he could make little headway, 
determined to try a waiting game and wear the fish out, 
allowing it to tow the boat. But this became monot- 
onous, and at the end of an hour and a half the game 
seemed to be as lively as ever. Jack then made a " spurt " 
and finally succeeded in bringing it to the surface, when 



TOWED THREE MILES 105 

Joe shouted " Albacore ! " and to their amazement it 
was an albacore and a monster ; its gleaming silver belly, 
its blue back and black staring eyes, but more than all, 
its long side fins, telling its identity. The fish fought 
like a tiger, repeatedly breaking away, and when it was 
brought to gafF, it made a gallant struggle on the hook, 
deluging them with spray. As Joe lifted the fish in, all 
gave a shout of surprise at its size. It was not very 
long, but compact. Later it was found to tip the scales 
at sixty-three pounds, the average catch being fifteen. 
No wonder it towed the boat three miles in the long 
contest, and, in proportion to its size, this fish more than 
equaled the play of some tunas. 

The albacore is one of the most interesting of fishes, 
and in the Santa Catalina Channel has been taken weigh- 
ing nearly one hundred pounds. It bears a close resem- 
blance to the tuna and is a cousin of this fish or nearly 
related. The same small finlets are seen ; the head is 
more pointed, and the body more rounded and spindle- 
like ; the eyes are very large, black and white, and staring, 
conspicuous objects. The tail is small but powerful, 
and when the fish is dropped aboard it beats a mar- 
velous tattoo upon the planks, often in a small boat 
conveying a peculiar and startling tremor. The pec- 
toral fin is at least two-fifths as long as the fish, saber- 
hke in shape, nothing like it being seen in other fishes ; 
In a word, the albacore, or Germo alalunga^ as It Is 
known to science, is a type of speed, endurance and 
pugnacity. 



io6 THE BOY ANGLERS 

" There's one thing about the albacore," said Joe, as 
he packed the fish away in the canvas after sponging it 
off, the fish bleeding badly, as do all the tribe, " it's 
about here nearly always. They run in with the tuna 
when they come, and I've seen so many in a school 
feeding with tunas that you could catch nothing but al- 
bacore; they're so much faster than the tuna that they 
get all the bait. I've caught them about every month 
in the year, too, but in winter, in February or January, 
we go out a way, or get them a mile or two off Avalon 
bay." 

The Torqua was gotten under way again and it was 
not long before Tom had a strike and landed a fine skip- 
jack — ^a fish almost as active as the yellowtail, and weigh- 
ing twelve pounds. They had struck a school of the 
fine game fishes, which could be seen on the surface 
everywhere, so the boat was stopped and the anglers 
cast into them with success. Like the bonito the skip- 
jack played well at the surface, rushing in and out, up 
and down, some trying to leap out of the water, others 
plunging deep into the channel's blue heart, where they 
sulked like the salmon. 

" All deep-water fishes, especially these, sulk," said 
the Angler, watching Jack bring in his fish; "and you 
see how they turn their sides to you in coming up, to 
offer the most resistance possible." 

"What's that, Joe ? " said Tom, pointing to some- 
thing sharp protruding from the water a short distance 
away. 



TOWED THREE MILES 



07 



" Looks like a shark, but I reckon it's a big sunfish," 
said Joe, " he's so still ; they lay that way." 

Johnnie turned the boat in that direction and passed 
by the object, which was seen to be a huge sunfish sun- 

" ' ' 1 




Salt-water sunfish and young. 

ning itself and lying nearly flat, occasionally righting 
itself. 

"You never see a cowboy act at sea," I reckon, 
said Joe, as he picked up a heavy line, quickly making a 



io8 THE BOY ANGLERS 

slip noose at the end. " Put me nearer, Johnnie," said 
Joe, as he went forward taking the coil in his hand. As 
they circled around the big fish Joe, who had been a cow- 
puncher and sheep-herder on the island, tossed his lariat 
cleverly over the huge fin of the sunfish (Mola) and with 
a jerk secured it. The giant, for it was one, displayed 
remarkable coolness, slowly righting and sinking; then, 
feeling the rope, it dropped quickly out of sight, creating 
a swirl of waters suggestive of its size, while the line 
creaked and hissed as it went over the side held by Joe's 
powerful grasp. It sank one hundred feet or more, then 
was stopped with difficulty, yet came up readily under 
the demonstration of six lusty arms, and when at the 
surface plunged in a fierce but elephantine fashion, tos- 
sing water over the boat and displaying a desire to sink 
her. 

" How large do you think it is ? " asked the Angler. 

The Commodore pushed the oar along the side of the 
sunfish and made a fair estimate, showing its length to 
be about ten feet, while its weight was guessed at five hun- 
dred pounds. 

" It's an old fellow," said Joe, " they have little or 
no life to them." Being of no use, the fish was cast off, 
after they had examined the remarkable ivory-like teeth 
with which it eats jellyfish, and its singular rim of a 
tail. 

" The largest one ever seen was caught at Avalon," 
said Joe. " It was eleven feet long and so big that they 
had to cut it in sections to weigh it." 



TOWED THREE MILES 109 

The fishing had suddenly stopped ; not a fish could 
be seen on the clear glassy surface, and Joe expressed the 
opinion that either sharks or killers were around ; and 
that he was a true prophet became evident not long after, 
when three enormous black fins were seen coming down 
the channel. Every few moments they would disappear, 
then the killers came up to breathe and showed a 
jet-black skin with a white collar back of the dorsal, a 
most striking object. 

" When they come, tunas go," Joe explained. 
" They'll kill a whale, run it down and tear its tongue 
out by pieces. One was killed that way off Avalon some 
ten years ago, and people lay around in boats and 
watched the fight. There's a whale over there now," 
added Joe, pointing to where, half a mile distant, a big 
tail seemingly poised in the air, then sank into the sea. 

" Run over that way," said the Angler, " and Jack, 
get out your kodak, a photograph of a whale would be 
well worth the while, as it appears whales and killers of 
whales have driven away the fish." 

The launch was presently speeding along over the 
water in the direction of the whale, which again came 
up, rising into the air, a mountain of flesh, until it ap- 
peared to be fairly dancing on its tail, then sinking quickly 
into the sea. 

'' Playing," said Joe. 

The whale had gone down two hundred yards or so 
distant, and Jack took his station in the bow, kodak in 
hand, ready to touch the button at its reappearance. 



no THE BOY ANGLERS 

PufF, pufF! came a sound like escaping steam a short 
distance ahead, and the big slate-colored back of the 
giant was seen, but immediately sank out of sight. 

" It's comin' right for us," said Joe ; " look down 
and perhaps you'll see it." 

As he finished speaking the water about them began 
to boil and rush upward; the enormous tail screw of the 
whale was almost directly beneath, grinding the water 
into ten thousand currents. 

" If it would only come up now," said Jack, whirling 
about and watching the water intently. 

" Not exactly at this moment," replied the Angler, 
" we might be lifted." 

Johnnie was turning the launch, and presently they 
were following the whale, which, doubtless, was swim- 
ming but a short distance below and a little ahead, 
as it could not be seen. Suddenly the pufF, pufF-f-f-f ! of 
escaping steam now came one hundred and fifty feet, or 
thereabouts, ahead. Jack pointed the kodak and obtained 
his first photograph of a whale at sea. 

"You might say these whales are tame," said 
Joe; '^that is, you see one or two most every time you 
come out in summer, and the killers too, an' they don't 
appear to be afraid. I never knew of one that made a 
move on a boat, though the steamer has killed two, run 
them down." 

"Why should they ? " said Johnnie Grayley. 
"They're decent folk, an' as long as ye trate them right 
they'll return the compliment." 



112 THE BOY ANGLERS 

" I suppose treating them right is not taking too 
much oil or bone, eh, Johnnie ? " said Tom. 

" Right, sir," said Johnnie, " but the rale reason they 
give up whalin' at this pint is that the whales was too 
ugly when harpooned. They say, sir, that the last wan 
hit (in 1872) is goin' yet. They smashed boats an' 
men, so the Portuguese give it up, and the whales has 
increased so that they have a reg'lar convention here 
some years." 

No waters offer more strange creatures, large and 
small, than the Santa Catalina Channel, the stretch of 
blue water between the island of that name and the main- 
land, a feeding ground for whales, killers and swordfish, 
the basking ground for the sunfish, the summer home 
of the tuna and sea-bass, a vast aquarium stocked with 
all the marvels of the sea from corals to whales. 

As the Torqua turned inshore and sped over the 
quiet sea the sun was tipping over the mountains, its 
crimson light flooding everything with its radiance, while 
out from the canons crept the deep purple shadows that 
seemed like living things, increasing and growing, the 
advance guard of coming night. Tom and Jack had 
much to discuss over the camp-fire that evening, but it 
was not long before they were laughing at the Commo- 
dore and Johnnie Gray ley, who had become engaged in a 
heated debate relating to some technical point in an- 
gling. Finally Johnnie broke out with, " Well, where 
did ye git yer iishin' information, I'd like to know 
that ?" 



TOWED THREE MILES 



13 



" That's easy told," replied the Commodore, fishing 
a live coal from the fire and balancing it on his corn-cob 
pipe. " I got what little I know from wan of the finest 




114 THE BOY ANGLERS 

gintlemen anglers in Scotland, the best hand at a rod I 
ever saw, and it was this way : I was fond of feeshin* 
from a lad. I was born with a love for it, an' was 
always wadin' the brooks an' streams. If me mother 
wanted me she'd come down to the water; there I'd be 
up to me knees in it, with a bit of a branch feeshin' and 
takin' me first lessons. Wan day I was wadin' down 
stream, feeshin' with a bit of a tree and a cord for a 
line and a bent pin for a hook, an' with this tackle I'd 
laid up as fine a string of trout as ye'd wish to see, one 
six-pounder and the rest runnin' down to half a pound, 
an', if I do say it, they were bonnie feesh, with their 
sparkle of red an' the glint of gold. Well, as I say, I 
was wadin' doon, cautious like, stealin' in pool after 
pool an' havin' jest the luck ye read of, when round the 
bend comes a gintleman with the finest rig ye ever see 
in yer life, top boots of Injy rubber, an' I in bare legs; 
bamboo rod, an' I with willow or worse ; a bit of willow- 
work creel, white and shiny, an' with his name on a 
silver mark ; reel shinin' like silver, an' I reckon' it was. 
He come along castin' with flies, an' when he see me 
he stops an' laughs and turns his creel upside doon. 
'Bad luck, sir? ' I says. 'Don't mention it,' says he; 
then he says, ' Me lad, d'ye want to sell them feesh ? ' 
' I do,' says I ; ' I want to sell them mighty bad.' 
' Well,' says he, holdin' out the creel, ' lay 'em in on a bit 
of moss, an' here's five shillins for the feesh,' an' then 
he says, lookin' at me mighty hard, ' here's five more 
for forgettin' that ye sold 'em. D'ye mind ? I want to 



TOWED THREE MILES 115 

play a joke on some friends.' ' I've forgot it already, 
sir,' says I, pocketin' the ten shillins, an' he wandered 
off smilin' to bate the band, an' I kicked it home to tell 
me mother. She was wan of the old-fashion, honest 
kind, God bless her ! an' said nothin', but the next day 
she says, ' Robert, have ye forgotten that ye sold the 
gintleman the feesh ? ' ' No,' says I, ' I have not ' ; in 
fac' I couldn't kape it out of me mind. ' Then,' says 
she, ' ye're kapin' what don't belong to ye.' I was 
wantin' a heap of things and them shillins burned in me 
trousers leg; so I tried me best to forgit the transaction ; 
but every mornin' she'd ask me the same quistion, an' 
when it come the day before Sunday she says, ' Robert, 
ye'd better free yer conscience an' hunt the gintleman 
up an' return the money before ye go to kirk.' So I 
started doon to the village, an' as luck would have it, I 
found him the center of a crowd of horsemen comin' 
from the hunt. As he caught sight of me he laughed 
and stopped. ' D'ye want to see me, me lad ? ' says he. 
' I do,' says I. ' I've done me best, sir, to forgit that I 
sold ye the trout, but I canno' do it ; here's your five 
shillin', an' thank ye jist the same.' 

" Well," said the Commodore, laughing at the re- 
membrance, " ye should have heard them gintlemen 
shout ; they roared and screamed, an' wan huntsman 
jest laughed himself off his horse, an' me friend he 
laughed louder than any. After a while he says, ' Ye're 
the only honest angler I ever heard of. Give me the 
five shillin' ; that relaves yer conscience, does it .? ' 



ii6 THE BOY ANGLERS 

' It does,' says I, ' at least me mither's,' an' at that they 
all roared again. ' Hold yer hat, lad,' says me friend, 
an' they threw silver in that about made me fortune, 
' Come and see me to-morrow,' says he, ' at the Cedars,' 
mentionin' a fine place in the neighborhood. I did, an' 
he gave me a job, an' I grew up to be head kaper an' 
had all the feeshin' for the askin'. So you see, Mr. 
Grayley, it pays to be honest," concluded the Commo- 
dore. 

" So it do," replied Johnnie ; " an' if yer mother 
hadn't been, sorra job ye'd had." 



CHAPTER VII 



SOMETHING ABOUT FISHES 



The Angler had promised to give the boys a talk on 
fishes and illustrate it with a stereopticon and slides which 
he had brought for the purpose, it being a convenient 
machine for transportation and worked by kerosene ; so 
one evening a party of young people came down from 
Avalon and a neighboring camp and the machine was 
mounted in the dining-tent, and a sheet thrown across 
the end, the Angler showing views of many remarkable 
fishes and giving a running talk as Tom ran the slides 
through the stereopticon. 

" As we are all interested in fishing," he began, " it 
is only right that we should know something about 
fishes. It is not necessary for our purpose to know 
them scientifically, the number of bones they have, or 
how to classify them ; but I would like you to know 
them well enough to remember at all times that a fish is 
a highly developed animal, and has rights as you have, 
which should be respected by every boy who wishes to 
be a true and thorough sportsman ; so I am going to 
begin by quoting some good words of a gentleman and 
angler, ex-President Grover Cleveland, one of the sea- 

117 



ii8 THE BOY ANGLERS 

anglers of America, whose example as a sportsman has 
always been of benefit to the country," Then the An- 
gler read the following : " At this season, when the activ- 
ities of genteel fishing usually begin, it is fitting that a 
word should be spoken that may not only redound to 
our comfort and satisfaction, but may guard us against 
temptations that easily beset even the best of fishermen. 
We who claim to represent the highest fishing aspira- 
tions are sometimes inclined to complain on days when 
the fish refuse to bite. There can be no worse exhi- 
bition than this of an entire misconception of a wise ar- 
rangement for our benefit. If on days when we catch 
few or no fish we feel symptoms of disappointment, 
these should immediately give way to satisfaction when 
we remember how many spurious and discouraged fish- 
ermen are spending their time in hammocks and under 
trees or on golf fields instead of with fishing outfits, 
solely on account of just such unfavorable days. 

" What has been said naturally leads to the sugges- 
tion that consistency requires those of us who are right- 
minded fishermen to reasonably limit ourselves as to the 
number of fish we should take on favorable days. On 
no account should edible fish be caught in such quan- 
tities as to be wasted. By restraining ourselves in this 
matter we discourage in our own natures the growth of 
greed, we prevent wicked waste, and make it easier for us 
to bear the fall between what we may determine upon as 
decent good luck and bad luck or no luck; and we make 
ourselves at all points better men and better fishermen. 



SOMETHING ABOUT FISHES 119 

" We ought not to forget these things as we enter 
upon the pleasures of our summer's fishing. But in 
any event let us take with us when we go out good 
tackle, good bait, and plenty of patience. If the wind 
is in the south or west, so much the better ; but let's 
go, wherever the wind may be. If we catch fish we 
shall add zest to our recreation. If we catch none, we 
shall still have the outing and the recreation — more 
healthful and more enjoyable than can be gained in any 
other way." ^ 

" These are good words, ' good medicine,' " said the 
Angler. " The man who boasts of his large catch, who 
fishes for numbers and weight, is not a true sportsman. 
To appreciate the position of the fishes we must re- 
member that they inhabit a world of their own beneath 
the sea where there are mountains, valleys, great plains, 
and all the surface conditions, but covered with water 
from a foot to five or six miles in depth and an average 
of possibly three miles all over the earth. The home 
of the fishes is often a desert plain of great sandy 
stretches ; again it is a beautiful region abounding in 
coral and an abundance of life. The fishes remind us 
of the birds. The water is their atmosphere and 
through it they dart or fly in a manner recalling the 
birds. They migrate like themi, moving in and out, up 
and down the coasts, according to season. Nearly all 

^ The author is indebted to ex-President Cleveland for his kind permission 
to quote the above lines originally published in an article in the New York In- 
dependent. 




Ocean scenery. 



SOMETHING ABOUT FISHES 



121 



the fishes are adapted for speed ; are long and pointed 
so that they move through the water at the sHghtest ef- 
fort. Looking at a typical fish it is seen to have fins of 
two kinds — paired and single. The top or upper ones 
are called the dorsals and are balancers, upper center- 
boards boomed out by rays or bones. In some fishes 




A walking fish. 



this fin is of importance as a locomotive organ. The 
side or pectoral fins correspond to the forearms in other 
animals ; and that they are used as such is shown in the 
periophthalmus and in the anabas, or climbing perch, 
and in some of the gurnards. The two ventral fins 
compare to the hind legs, and with the anal fin serve to 
support the fish when resting on the bottom, while the 



122 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



latter is the balancer. The most important fin is the 
caudal or tail. This is the rudder, the chief locomo- 
tive organ which, with a screw-like motion, propels 
the fish. It enables the tuna to make the leaps we see 
every day, and gives the yellowtail its power of resist- 



s^th^ 



*o\<^ 



„-•» OR FRONT ,. ^ , 




*"% 



External parts of a fish. 



.PAIRED FINS 



ance and active movements. With it the flying-fish 
forces itself into the air, and the whale, not a fish, de- 
stroys boats. 

" Tails of great variety and use are seen. Thus the 
sea-horse employs its tail to cling to weeds, and swims 
with its dorsal. In the swivel-tail shark we have 
caught, the upper lobe is of enormous length. In the 
flying-fish we use for bait the lower lobe is the longest, 
and in the garpike the ventral extends into the upper 
lobe of the tail, this being a very ancient type of fish, 
as the Holoptychius and others shown. The fishes are 



SOMETHING ABOUT FISHES 123 

protected by scales which fit one over the other Hke 
shingles, and are found in great variety. Some fishes 




Tails. 



have a perfect armor, as the covvfish, only the tail and 
fins moving. The garpike appears to be encased in an 
armor of china. The Httle batfish is corrugated or 



124 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



rough over its surface, while the porcupine fish is cov- 
ered with spines, and when brought to the surface has a 
pecuhar habit of inflating itself. In the sharks we find 
no scales, the skin being a shagreen. In shape there is 




An ancient fish. 



great variety, ranging from the strange and beautiful 
John Doree to the moonfish. In the skeleton of the 
fish we see how it is braced, there being apparently two 
back-bones; but the upper is merely the dorsal fin 




Garpike. 

spines. The head is a complicated mass of bones. 
In the tuna and nearly all the game fishes the teeth 
are very small, almost unnoticeable, but in the shark we 
all know how sharp they are, the twelve or more rows 
cutting a wire leader readily. 



SOMETHING ABOUT FISHES 



125 



" To understand the anatomy of a fish we must dis- 
sect it. An interesting feature is the air-bladder — a sil- 
very balloon-like object lying just beneath the back-bone, 
by which the fishes float m any position. Fishes breathe 
by gills. Lifting up the gill cover you see the blood-red 
leaflets where the blood is brought in contact with air in 







Dissection of a bony fish, the trout (^Saimo'). 

a.bl.y air-bladder; aw., anal opening; au.^ auricle; gl.st., gills; gui.f esoph- 
agus; int., intestine; kd., kidney; /r., liver; I.o-v., ovary; opt./., 
brain ; py.c, pyloric cceca ; sp.c, spinal cord ; spi., spleen ; st., stom- 
ach ; v., ventricle. 

the water, oxygenizing it. The fishes are constantly 
opening and closing their mouths, thus taking in water 
and forcing it out through the gills, making an endless cur- 
rent passing over the red gills or lungs of the fish. The 
fishes have internal ears, the curious stones you cut from 
the head of so many fishes here being the ear-stones. 
Fishes have the sense of smell, and many have highly 



126 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



developed organs of touch. Their eyes are often large 
and lustrous, and many see a long distance. Some are 
blind, as the interesting cave-fishes. Some forms of the 




Skeleton of a fish. 



deep sea are blind, while others have enormous eyes ap- 
parently for the reception of light. In the eyes of the 

fishes, vi^hich are 
often beautiful, we 
see some strange 
features. In the 
adult flounder the 
eyes are upon the 
upper side, in the 
young fish they are 
upon each side; but 
as the fish grows, it 
falls over upon one side and the under eye begins to 
pass around, the gradual changes being more than mar- 
vellous. In the singular Anableps the eyes are divided, 




The four-eved fish. 




Some flat fishes. 



128 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



the fish appearing to have four eyes. The upper ones 
are adapted to looking far away over and out of the 
water, while the lower ones are intended for work be- 
neath it ; so you will see they are well supplied. A few 



^^ 




The angler. 



of the fishes are herbivorous, but the great majority are 
cannibals, devouring their kind and others, chasing them 
with the greatest ferocity. In seizing their prey they 
crush them in their powerful jaws, never chewing them, 
the prey being swallowed at once. This is why it is so 
easy to hook a fish. It gulps down the bait and so is 
often hooked in the throat. You will notice your bait 
crushed and mangled when you miss a tuna or yellow- 
tail. While the tuna leaps at its prey like a tiger, certain 
fishes have various appliances to enable them to secure 



SOMETHING ABOUT FISHES 



29 



their victims. An interesting illustration is the angler, 
that has a perfect fishing-rod, the fish lying on the bot- 
tom and raising the rod with its bait-like filament until 
the victim is just in the right position, when the enor- 
mous mouth opens and the small fry is literally engulfed. 
This angler simulates the bottom and is very difficult to 
distinguish from a moss-covered rock. A deep-sea angler, 
Corynolophus^ not only has a fishing-rod but the " bait " is 




luminous. Some fishes, as the sting-rays, have serrated 
spines, others have horns ; and a number of fishes, as 
the Nokee of Tahiti and the Mad Tom, have poisonous 
spines, while the famed torpedo has powerful batteries, 



130 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



the swordfish its sword, and the sawfish a double saw 
with which to cut down its prey. 

" Many of the deep-sea fishes are brilliantly lumi- 
nous, the light in some instances being used to attract 
prey. These lights are found in various places. In 
some the entire body is luminous ; in others the light is 
on the feelers or tail ; and some fishes have fights of two 




Black swallower. 



or three different colors, which may have some definite 
meaning. The deep-sea fishes are remarkably formed to 



SOMETHING ABOUT FISHES 



13^ 



withstand the enormous pressure, their bones being cav- 
ernous, permitting water to pass through them like 
sponges. One, the black swallower, can swallow a fish 
very much larger than itself, drawing itself over the fish 
like a glove. The fishes increase by eggs or spawn, 
though some, as the 
surf fishes, the little 
shiners which you see 
so plentifully along- 
shore, give birth to 
living young. The 
eggs resemble very 
fine shot, of a light 
color, and are depos- 
ited in a variety of 
places. The tuna, 
mackerel, and fishes 
of this kind deposit their eggs in the open sea, where 
nine-tenths of them are eaten by various animals, espe- 
cially as soon as they hatch, when the water is filled with 
them, often millions, becoming at once the victims to 
others ; hence the vast number is a wise provision of 
nature. 

" It is an Interesting fact that many fishes do not re- 
semble their parents at first. This is particularly true 
of the young angler, which appears to be covered with 
barbels or plants, while the young of the swordfish 
would never be recognized as the progeny of the swords- 
man of the sea that plunges Its sword through the oaken 
10 




Fish-eggs and young. 




X 



Sting-ray. 




Nokee or poisonous scorpion-fish. 




Mad torn. 

Some poisonous fishes. 



SOMETHING ABOUT FISHES 



133 



hulls of ships, and has sent many a vessel into port leak- 
ing. The few fishes that are left to grow up are a piti- 
able showing compared to the swarms which filled the 
water soon after hatching, and many of them have some 
special protection. Thus the stickle-back eggs are pro- 
tected in a nest which the male fish weaves skilfully 
out of weed at the bottom. One of the suckers, espe- 



a 





Swordfishes : a, b, young ; c, adult. 

cially in the St. Lawrence where I have found them, 
forms a nest of pebbles often four feet high and eight 
feet across — a marvellous structure which grows year by 
year. The lamprey forms a dam or nest of stones, and 
two or three fishes have been observed carrying one as 
large as half a brick. The paradise-fish forms a nest of 
bubbles of air which hold together. The big Anten- 



134 THE BOY ANGLERS 

narias, like fish we find here, is a nest builder and literally 
walks with its side fins, and a large number of fishes 




A nest-building stickle-back. 

make some attempt to provide for their young, and in 
nearly every instance it is the male which builds the nest 
and cares for the young." 



SOMETHING ABOUT FISHES 135 

" There are a number of fishes," continued the Angler 
after a brief pause, " which are in a sense parasitic ; 
that is, they attach themselves to other animals. An 
interesting instance is the little fierasfer, a long slender 
fish which lives in the intestine of the large sea-cucumber, 
which you may see lying on the rocks here like a slug. 




Pilot-fish and chim£era. 

The pilot-fish attaches itself to the shark, generally seen 
at its head, following it about, often darting in advance 
at food, and supposed to guide sharks to food ; but this is 
a fable. The stupid pilot merely finds protection in the 
shadow of its gigantic comrade just as does the remora 
which fastens itself to it by its sucker. I have seen 
pilot-fishes following the drum and turtles with the re- 



136 THE BOY ANGLERS 

mora attached. Nearly all the jelly-fishes are followed 
by little fishes, while the beautiful Portuguese man-of- 
war is the home, as it were, of several small fishes that 
almost perfectly imitate the color of the tentacles — a 
rich purple. This resemblance in color is very interest- 
ing, and we find a number of fishes which escape notice 
by adapting their color to that of the surroundings. This 
is the reason why you. Jack, did not see the halibut the 
other day until it moved ; it was lying in the sand and 
of its exact tint and color. So with the sculpins ; they 
imitate the color of the rocks and seaweed and so es- 
cape notice. 

"I will not weary you with the technical features of 
fish life, you can read that anywhere ; all I wish is to 
impress upon you that the fishes are quite as important 
as the birds, even though there are not so many books 
written about them and clubs formed for their protection. 
They are as beautiful as the birds, very much more valu- 
able from an economic standpoint, and you, as anglers, 
should take a stand for fair-play to the fishes. The care- 
less and ignorant angler will say there are millions of 
fishes in the sea ; you can't exhaust them. This is a 
misstatement to protect the 'game-hog,' as in every lo- 
cality where netting and catching of fishes has gone on 
without rules or regulations the fisheries have either been 
exhausted or decreased. You, boys, will in a short time 
be voters and should interest yourselves in the sea fish- 
eries, in sardines and other bait, and see that proper and 
intelligent rules are passed for their protection or your 



SOMETHING ABOUT FISHES 137 

grandchildren will have very poor fishing. All fishes 
should be protected in some way at the spawning time, 
and it should be made so offensive to overcatch game- 
fish that it should be considered rank dishonesty to ' catch 
for numbers or weight.' At the same time, don't con- 
demn people before you know the facts. 

" There are about twelve thousand species of fishes 
known in the world, and very few that are not valuable to 
man as assets of the nation. The sardine, salmon, halibut, 
bluefish, mackerel, swordfish, mossbunker, dogfish (for the 
livers), cod, hake, sole, flounder, sand dab, tuna, white 
sea-bass, rock-bass, and a score or more are all of great 
value to the various nations of the world and should re- 
ceive protection. Many of them are game-fishes, and 
by this we mean a fish which fights well and to the fin- 
ish and is valuable as food or a trophy. The lion, 
tiger, bear, and wildcat are good game because they 
die game, and a hunter takes his life in his hands when 
he meets some of them ; so a game-fish is one which 
continues the battle until it is killed by the gaffer. 
The tuna and tarpon are ideal game-fishes from this 
standard, as they never surrender. The salmon, black- 
bass, trout, ounaniche are fresh-water examples. The yel- 
lowtail, bluefish, weakfish, ten-pounder, tarpon, white sea- 
bass are examples of sea game-fishes, while fishes which are 
utterly without game qualities are the fresh-water rock- 
bass, the flounder, the big shark-like angel-fish, and 
many more. The tuna is one of the most valued of 
fishes in Italy, where every portion is eaten, but here all 



138 THE BOY ANGLERS 

the specimens are in demand by anglers as trophies and 
are carried away. The tarpon is the only game-fish that 
is not good for food, its flesh being dry and of poor 
quality ; hence there is no demand for its flesh, and an- 
glers release all they catch, saving those which they wish 
as trophies. Nev^er kill more fishes than you can use. 
Angling as sport is legitimate, but stop before you are 
satiated, and return all you can not use to the water. 
Every gentleman angler in this great country strictly 
observes this rule, and it is a gratifying fact that we can 
say that nowhere in the world is there a higher standard 
of sportsmanship than in America. In every commu- 
nity there are some men who brutalize sport, but this is 
because they are ignorant and know no better. Nearly 
all such men can be converted by having the definition of 
the term ' game-hog ' thoroughly and forcibly explained 
to them." 

This ended the talk on fishes, and the boys, then and 
there, formed a club for the protection of the sea game- 
fishes, from which in later days came results, good and 
lasting. 



PART II 
ANGLING IN THE GULF OF MEXICO 



CHAPTER VIII 



IN THE TARPON COUNTRY 



The days of summer passed rapidly at the Anglers' 
Caiion, and almost before they were aware of it July had 
merged into August. The Angler finally gave the word 
to break camp as he decided to spend August and Sep- 
tember in the Gulf of Mexico, in the land of the Silver 
King, or tarpon — the most remarkable and spectacular of 
all the great game-fishes of the sea — so one fine morning 
the party sailed away from the island, waving and shout- 
ing their adieus to Johnnie Grayley and Joe, who gladly 
would have joined them. The objective point of the 
Angler was Corpus Christi, to reach which the trip was 
made across California, New Mexico, Arizona and 
Texas — a hot region in summer, yet not particularly 
disagreeable owing to the dryness of the atmosphere. 
The party changed at San Antonio, and one night short- 
ly before ten o'clock they rolled into the little town of 
" Corpus," as the conductor called it, where a peculiar 
hot wind blew in from the Gulf. 

The Commodore was always up betimes, and the fol- 
lowing morning when the bovs appeared they found a large 
schooner lying hard by, upon which was stowed their rods 

141 



142 THE BOY ANGLERS 

and luggage. Two boys stood on the wharf and one 
asked Tom if they were going to Tarpon. 

Tom replied that they were going tarpon-fishing. 

"You, yourself?" asked one of the boys in a sur- 
prised tone. 

" Certainly,'* said Tom, laughing. " Don't I look 
it ? " 

" Oh, yes, but it's hard work for a man," said the 
boy. 

Tom took from one of his pockets a photograph of 
himself standing by the side of a large tuna, which he 
handed to the strange boy with the remark, " Four hours." 

" You mean you played the fish that long ? " asked 
the other. 

" That's it," replied Tom. 

" Well, put it there," said the Texan, who spoke with 
a peculiar but fascinating accent, extending his hand 
enthusiastically. 

The boy shook Tom's hand heartily, then introduced 
him to his brother Rad, adding, " They call me Bud, Bud 
Hammond. Rad," he said, turning to his brother, 
" we're not in it ; he's the boss fisherman. Say " 

" Tom's my name, Tom Temple," said Tom, laugh- 
ing, " and this is my brother Jack. He's something of a 
stayer himself." 

" Well, I was going to say, Rad and I have been 
coming down to this coast for four or five years, and 
Rad has the record for a six-foot alligator gar, and mine 
— what is my record, Rad ? " 



IN THE TARPON COUNTRY 143 

" I reckon it must be that onary old sting-ray," re- 
plied his brother, laughing. 

"Yes, that's it," said Buddie; "but what I'm trying 
to say is that it never occurred to me that a boy could 
catch a tarpon, so I have never tried. They tell such yarns 
it's enough to scare you ; but I notify you right away 
now, I'm going to take a tarpon. Ever see one ? 
No ? Well, it's the greatest living thing that swims. 
The minute you strike one he's out of the water and into 
the air from one to twelve feet, shaking his head, and 
sparkling like silver — that's why they^re called Silver 
King. We go down to the Pass on the beach when 
they're biting and lie on the sand and see them leap — it's 
great fun." 

" All aboard ! " came from the Commodore, and Tom 
and Jack turned to say good-by to their new acquaint- 
ances when they found to their delight that they were all 
going together. 

" That's our yacht," said Bud, pointing to the big 
schooner, " and your father is going with my father." 

This was one of Mr. Temple's surprises, and a few 
minutes later they were on the deck of a Texan yacht, 
one of the most remarkable vessels to be termed a yacht 
that Tom and Jack had ever seen. She was a fore-and- 
aft schooner of about one hundred and twenty tons 
burden, with an enormous flush deck, and stood as high 
out of water as a cruiser or a ship without ballast. The 
most singular feature was the center-boards which were 
on each side and pinned to the hull, a rope being attached 



144 THE BOY ANGLERS 

to each and run through a block and called the center- 
board halyard, which was hauled in when the Gar 
Pike, as she was named, ran before the wind, and slack- 
ened away when she was hauled on the wind. 

" A great ship this," said the Commodore as the 
schooner fell away. " Ye see, she's what they call a 
convarted schooner, built for this shallow inland water. 
She draws about two feet and can sail in a light dew." 

Whatever may have been the defects of the Gar 
Pike in appearance she made it up in comfort and sail- 
ing qualities ; and as she drew away from Corpus under 
full sail, the boys lying on deck in the hot sun, the Com- 
modore pacing up and down with his old spy-glass under 
his arm, Mr. Temple and his friend sitting near the 
wheel puffing at their pipes, there was an atmosphere of 
what the Commodore called solid comfort pervading 
everything. The Gar stood out in the direction of 
the Pass, and the boys now learned something regarding 
the coast line of Texas which they had not understood 
before. They had reached the waters of the Gulf of 
Mexico, but were still far from the Gulf itself, which 
was at least six or eight miles away. The stretch of 
smooth water along which their ark-like craft was glid- 
ing was a vast lake or bay hundreds of miles long and 
from one to eight miles wide, and from one to fifteen 
feet deep. Away in the direction of the Gulf they could 
see something which resembled cotton floating on the 
water, a mirage. As they reached out from shore the 
cotton took shape and became a sand-bank, low and flat, 



IN THE TARPON COUNTRY 145 

here and there blown up into dunes and show'ng some 
semblance of vegetation, but again being entirely devoid 
of brush of any kind, and so low and flat that the white 
foam of breakers far beyond could be seen, telling of the 
warm and restless waters of the great Gulf. 

The Gar ran to the south several miles, always 
parallel with the white balls of cotton which rapidly 
changed into sand as the schooner approached ; then 
the channel grew narrower and she ran in near the 
shore, passing a fine large building standing alone on the 
sand, built on piles — the Tarpon Club— and then the 
first glimpse was had of the little town of Tarpon. 
The outer barrier of the Texan coast which protects it 
from the seas of the Gulf at this point was a perfectly 
flat stretch of sand hardly a foot above the surface, 
forming the end of Mustang Island. Here the Gulf had 
broken in, forming a narrow channel known as Aransas 
Pass, on the south side of which, at the end of the sand- 
bank, known as St. Joseph's Island, was the town of 
Tarpon. 

The Gar had taken a few passengers from Cor- 
pus Christi to Tarpon and now ran into a point of 
rocks until she struck the sand, the captain explaining 
that the harbor of Tarpon had filled up, and as it was 
decided to go ashore for the night and make arrange- 
ments for boatmen and bait, all hands passed over a 
plank directly into a curious cart which the boys had 
noticed coming down the beach before they landed. 

^' That's the Tarpon Inn coach," said Rad. " It's 



146 THE BOY ANGLERS 

jolly fun and holds the record for the slowest time in 
Texas. You see," he continued, " it's all sand here ; 
it's like snow. You sleep out-of-doors at night, and in 
some places you'll be covered up in the morning ; so they 
have wide tires to run on the beach." 

All hands with the luggage piled into the sand coach, 
the passengers clung to one another and the driver 
talked encouragingly to his mules until they finally 
reached the inn, an attractive little hostelry by the side 
of the Life-Saving Station, where the party found good 
cheer and many tarpon anglers, all in very light cloth- 
ing and all very jolly and good-natured. The inn was 
a rambling series of buildings with an interior court, or 
gallery, as the Texan youth called it, filled with chairs 
and hammocks. Here the anglers gathered, and the 
strange occurrences of the day were told and fought 
over. The most remarkable feature of this out-of-door 
room to the boys was the wall of the main house which 
might have been plated with silver, it glistened so, and 
was found to be covered with tarpon scales, beautiful 
objects four inches across, which were nailed against 
the wall, each bearing the name of the angler who 
caught the fish, the length of the fish, and the date. 
Such a record of stupendous deeds was never seen be- 
fore. Here were names of men famous in many fields 
far remote from fishing. If anything was needed to 
enthuse our anglers this accomplished it, and the Com- 
modore stood and gazed at the speaking records, dumb 
amazement written on every lineament of his face, redder 



IN THE TARPON COUNTRY 147 

than ever under the Influence of the hot Gulf wind. A 
number of boatmen were sitting about, and three were 
engaged to row Mr. Temple's party and the Ham- 
monds, all proving to be good gafFers and interesting 
characters. 

The boatmen were on hand bright and early the 
morning after the arrival of the Gar at Tarpon. 
The boys watched them wade along the sands with 
cast-nets, throwing them gracefully into the schools of 
mullets, taking them by the dozen — the bait elect for 
tarpon. By seven o'clock the boatmen were ready. 
They had mullet, which resembles a sardine but larger, 
for tarpon ; shrimp bait for Spanish mackerel. Each 
man had a light skifF with a chair or two rigged in the 
stern for the angler — an outfit far too light for safety if 
tuna had been the game. These were made fast behind 
the Gar, which under her big foresail was soon under 
way, sailing out through the narrow pass, anchoring 
near the jetty in shallow water as a sort of headquarters 
for the tarpon fishermen ; in fact, she was a gigantic flat- 
bottom house-boat perfectly adapted for sport in the 
strange lagoon that forms with the outlying island the 
outer guard of Texas. The tide was at the flood, and 
the Gar swung in not one hundred feet from the 
beach, down which as far as could be seen the surf was 
pounding and from which rose a cloud of fog-like 
spume that, caught by the wind, was carried far inland 
over the strange sand-dunes. 

A better day for sport could not be imagined. 
11 



148 THE BOY ANGLERS 

The sky was clear, no suspicion of a storm, the Gulf 
smooth, and a stiff wind blowing in, which, while hot, 
made the conditions delightful on the fishing-ground. 
Already a number of anglers were fishing, and in a short 
time the boys, the two older anglers, and the Commo- 
dore were provided with boats and also ready for the 
new experience. A more peculiar fishing-ground could 
hardly be imagined. A long stone jetty reached out 
from the head of Mustang Island, formed of rocks ; 
apparently the tarpon on coming up the coast met it 
and turned into the lagoon or inner bay, there finding 
mullets and other small game. The pass itself was the 
best place for the fish, ranging from ten to forty feet in 
depth ; yet when Jean, the boatman of Tom and Jack, 
shoved off, he said that the best fishing was in about 
twenty feet of water. 

" I see why the tarpon jumps," said Tom. 

" Why, sir ? " asked the boatman. 

" Because he can't sulk. I believe if we could take 
a tuna in shallow water he would leap at the strike." 

Tom and Jack were surprised at many things on 
this delightful fishing-ground, perhaps the most remark- 
able place for tarpon in the world. The wind blew hot 
from the Gulf, yet was cool if one can explain the para- 
dox, and the secret of being comfortable in this Gulf 
fishing was to keep in the wind, night and day, as it 
blows refreshingly all the time, increasing possibly as 
the sun goes down. The boys marveled at the boat, a 
light, flat-bottom skiff, but they presently found that 



IN THE TARPON COUNTRY 149 

the outfit was well suited to the place, as the boats 
rarely strayed far from the jetty and were always near 
or in shallow water, the best fishing apparently being 
directly along the jetty, not thirty feet from it, and in 
water from fifteen to thirty feet deep. The tarpon 
tackle was identical with the outfit for the tuna — short, 
stifF rod, with one long tip, large reel, a seven-foot 
leader, and hook similar to those used for tuna. The 
bait was mullet, four inches in length, hooked upward 
through the lips, just as in tuna fishing. No sinker 
was used, and the boatman surprised his young patrons 
by saying, " Slack out about twenty feet." 

" Only twenty feet ! " exclaimed Jack ; " this is 
easy," at which Jean grinned, lighted his pipe, and said, 
" Tarpon come right alongside, you see him all right." 
And just then Jack heard a queer pufF-hke sound, for a 
second, and saw hardly ten feet from the boat a broad, 
greenish back. 

" Tarpon ; look out ! " 

The boat had crossed the smooth channel and turned 
out. Jean was rowing very slowly along the jetty, so 
near, in fact, that the boys could have cast a bait on to 
the rocks. About two hundred feet astern came another 
boat, and outside of theirs were others, in all perhaps 
eight boats, all keeping a certain distance apart, so that 
a wild tarpon would not injure any one. Again came 
the puff, puff; but this time it was a large green turtle 
almost alongside the boys' boat. Then a shout was 
heard ahead, and looking around Tom and Jack both 



150 THE BOY ANGLERS 

saw a great mass of molten silver seemingly over their 
heads, vi^hich as it dropped struck the boatman's chair, 
nearly upsetting him, fell and disappeared in a swirl of 
waters. 

" Almost had me overboard," said Jean, rubbing his 
back ; " he hit me a bifF with his tail." 

Then some one ahead called out, " Beg pardon, but 
I couldn't hold him down," and they saw Rad's father 
reeling in his line and realized that it was his fish that 
had nearly caused a catastrophe. 

" Too many boats," remarked Jean ; " never know 
when you're going to get it. I — " But Jack's reel at 
that precise second broke in with a quick zee-ee, and Jack, 
thinking of tunas, struck on the instant with a long 
heavy sway, and struck well, as while Tom gave a whirl 
at his reel to take in his line and give his brother the 
field, there rose into the air that grandest of all spec- 
tacles to the eyes of the angler, a Silver King. For a 
moment it seemed to hover in the air like a bird, swing- 
ing its mighty tail until the boys heard the clanging of 
the wire leader, and the bait was hurled at them up the 
line like a bullet, as the big gills and mouth opened in 
the effort of the fish to throw out the hook. What a 
spectacle it was ! The sun gleaming and scintillating 
over it, a blaze of light to the astonished anglers ; then 
it dropped with a resoundmg crash, and Jack's reel gave 
tongue in a manner to bring the blood to the cheek and 
fire to the eye. Ze-e-e-e-e-e-e ! it sounded. What 
melody ! 



IN THE TARPON COUNTRY 151 

** The whispering music of the sea " 
gave way to the buzzing, hissing tones of the click, then 
three hundred feet away rose the Silver King again, 
sparkling like a gem. All this happened in a few sec- 
onds, and now Jack was pressing upon the leather 
thumb-brake as hard as he could, even trying the effect 
of the left hand on the line above the reel ; but there 
was no stopping this plunger that rushed on, now deep 
in the pass, now appearing over a great roller on the sur- 
face. Jean was slowly backing after the tarpon, evi- 
dently amazed at the skill the young angler displayed, as 
when the fish leaped he whirled the reel-handle about 
and held the line taut, slacking when the time came, 
but always gaining. The tarpon plainly evinced a 
desire to go down the coast into the heavy surf where 
the boat could not live, so Jack began to force the fight- 
ing, giving the butt, holding the stalwart game that 
again and again leaped into the air. All the time the 
tarpon was taking them nearer and nearer the surf which 
marked the shallows on each side of Aransas Pass. 

"You must stop him," said Jean, holding the boat as 
well as he could ; " we capsize in the surf. Don't let 
him get over yonder," nodding at the threatening sea. 

So Jack held the tarpon, the rod bending to the 
danger point, the gamy fish rushing around in a semi- 
circle. Jack reeling as rapidly as possible, while Jean 
backed quickly. The next leap of the fish was made 
on the north side of the channel, beyond the jetty, in 
smooth water, where the tarpon went repeatedly into the 



152 THE BOY ANGLERS 

air, making a splendid display of its beauties and leaping 
powers. 

" Now ! " cried Jean, as the line slackened. 

Jack reeled with all his strength and brought the 
incoming fish up with a round turn as it turned to break 
away, not twenty feet distant, and then it rose directly 
before their eyes, its red gills showing, each scale scintil- 
lating, a royal spectacle. The tarpon never weakened ; 
it was fought to a finish, to use sporting parlance, and 
despite all its tremendous struggles Jack held it, reeled it 
to the tip of the leader or snood, and cried " GafF! " as 
he turned it forward. It was then that he was treated 
to a surprise. 

" I can't gafF," said the boatman ; " we'll have to 
tow him in." 

" What ! " exclaimed Jack, who was dripping with 
perspiration and salt water, red in the face, and looking 
as though he had been overboard. " Tow this fish in 
half a mile and lose him ? Oh, no. Gaff him." 

" He tip the boat over," replied Jean, who had the 
double line of the leader in hand. 

" No matter," said Jack ; " I want my first fish, and 
we can swim. We've been there before, eh, Tom ? " 
and the boys laughed. 

So the boatman, driven to the wall, gaffed the tarpon, 
held him a moment, then drew him carefully into the 
skiff. What happened next was best told by Rad and 
his brother, who were lying off in their boat watching 
their new friends land their first tarpon. The tarpon 



IN THE TARPON COUNTRY 153 

seemed to double up, its tail and head touching, then it 
straightened out, six feet of solid scales, and the air 
seemed filled with boatmen, boys, tarpon, chairs, and 
oars. Jean dodged the first onslaught, and the boys re- 
treated astern and back again. Jean, who was in the 
way, was hit below the knee, and oars and one chair 
were knocked overboard. That the skiff did not capsize 
was a miracle, as the noise the fish made was suggestive 
of a total wreck ; but in some way Jean reached his 
feet, and the next time he went down it was upon the 
tarpon, to which he clung with a death-like grasp, pre- 
venting the fish from rising again ; then slowly he hauled 
a tarpaulin over the fighter and partly rose with an " I 
told you so " expression on his face, which was irresist- 
itle. Finally he reached a big knife and despatched the 
fish, then took an account of stock. Rad and his brother 
now came up and picked up the oars, chair, and gaff 
which had been knocked overboard, and congratulated 
the fishermen, who were laughing heartily over the ad- 
venture. 

" I've learned one thing," said Jack, '^ and that is 
to take the advice of your boatman in a strange place. 
I insisted on taking in the fish, and in this skiff of a boat 
he might have killed one of us. Did you see his first 
swing ? " he asked Rad. " He just bent up so that his 
head and tail touched, then he straightened out like a 
steel spring, and I think the blow from that big solid 
head would have made trouble." 

" It might have killed you," replied Rad. " I saw a 



154 THE BOY ANGLERS 

tarpon rise not far from here once and strike the chair of 
a fisherman, knocking him fairly out of the boat, eh, 
Jean ? " 

The boatman looked up and smiled, then he reached 
down under the sail-cloth and grasping the dead tarpon 
by the gills held it up. 

" It's a beauty," said Rad. 

" It is and no mistake," retorted Jack, proudly. " If 
I live a hundred years I'll never forget that short round. 
One tarpon against three. He would have won, and 
flung himself overboard if Jean hadn't fallen on him and 
hit him a foul blow." 

Jean straightened out the boat and when everything 
was shipshape they began fishing again, watching the 
leaping tarpons on various lines, as by this time four or 
five fish had been landed, and the Angler and his friend 
could be seen playing a fish out beyond the buoy in the 
Gulf where the occasional glint of the sun on a mass of 
silver told of the tarpon's leap. The sport presently be- 
came very exciting. One angler near the boys' boat had 
a large jack ; another a leaping shark which could hardly 
be told from a tarpon, so far as its leaps were concerned ; 
while another boat was being towed by the gamy fish. 
There was a fascination about the sport impossible to de- 
scribe. The long stretch of beach and its rising cloud- 
like spray ; the soft mysterious wind, the musical roar of 
the sea which broke everywhere but in the narrow pass, 
and the feeling that all about were gigantic fish, sharks, 
green turtles, jacks, and other large game of the sea made 



IN THE TARPON COUNTRY 155 

an impression on the boys difficult to define, and they 
recognized that here was a picture of nature very differ- 
ent from that of the Pacific. Jean rowed along the jetty, 
then crossed in such shallow water that the rocks on the 
bottom could be seen ; yet Tom's reel gave tongue just 
as they had crossed, and as he bent back, pressing his 
thumb hard on the pad-brake, the tarpon went, blazing, 
into the air, flying, flinging itself from side to side, its gills 
wide open, its extraordinary mouth agape. How high it 
actually jumped no one could tell, but the boys all agreed 
that as they looked up at it, it appeared to be ten feet in 
air; perhaps it was only six, as who can govern the 
imagination at such a time ? Down fell the fish, to leap 
into the air again ; in fact, it made several leaps along- 
side the boat, giving a generous demonstration of its 
powers, then was away to the music of the screaming 
reel; but Tom stopped it in fifty yards, and then again 
into the air it went like a bird, and the Angler, whose 
boat was now nearby, rose and waved his sombrero and 
cheered them on. 

This fish was of different mettle from Jack's, as sud- 
denly it came rushing in, to turn and with a single wild 
run take four hundred feet of the line, again going into 
the air like a white bird far away on the opposite side of 
the pass, then disappeared while Tom felt an irresistible 
drag forcing him along. 

" 1 can't hold him ! " he cried, as the reel gave lusty 
zee-eee-ees beneath his thumb and the skiff began to 
slowly move ahead. 



156 THE BOY ANGLERS 

" This seems like tuna," said Jack ; " we're ofF, 
gallant anglers that we are." 

" And going right into the sea," finished Tom. 

The tarpon was towing the skiff at a rapid rate, stern 
first, directly south, and was now itself in a breaking sea 
that would have quickly swamped the boat had the boat- 
man not realized the situation and with a powerful swing 
pulled the skiff around and rowed inshore and up the 
channel as hard as he could. 

" It's a big fish, sir, a reg'lar bounder," he said ; " I 
can't keep him out. We go inshore and if she capsize 
shark won't get us, and you can jump over and play him 
along the beach." 

It was literally a race for shallow water. The 
"bounder" was still rushing down the coast; they could 
see him four hundred feet and more away leaping des- 
perately in the heavy seas. Even now the boat was in 
the heavy swells, and the beach seemed a long distance 
off; but Jean pulled lustily, and finally on the top of 
a large roller they went dashing in. " Water only 
waist-deep here," said Jean, whirling the boat about 
where she rode a sea that just began to comb ; then 
he pulled about again and on they went, now before 
seas, now heading them, until the fish had them fairly in 
the surf, and was still swimming on so powerfully that 
Tom could not stay it. Between seas Jean thrust his 
oar over, to show the boys that the water was a little 
over knee-deep ; so they took off their shoes and made 
ready for the inevitable— which soon came ; a big roller 



IN THE TARPON COUNTRY 157 

came careening in, caught the boat, capsizing and filling 
it, while they all leaped into the shallow water. Tom 
waded inshore, while Jack held to the boat with Jean and 
righted it, collecting the oars and turning the skifF head 




The author and a tarpon. Aransas, Texas. 



to the sea while Tom reeled in his mad steed. How he 
wished for a good stanch launch in which they could 
have kept out to sea, but this fish was a clever one, and, 
as Jean said later, doubtless knew that the skifF would 



158 THE BOY ANGLERS 

founder in the surf. It was useless to try and follow 
with the skiff, so Jack hauled it in and on to the beach, 
then hurried after Tom, who was carried a mile down 
shore before he killed the tarpon, that fought to the last, 
and was finally gaffed by Jean in a fine flurry and 
dragged upon the beach ; killed after a battle royal of 
over an hour. Jean lifted it up, six and a half feet of 
molten silver, a trophy to be proud of, and running a 
piece of drift bamboo through its gills, they started up 
the beach dragging the game. Reaching the boat, it 
was hauled aboard and the boat was gradually worked 
around through the surf to the pass and smooth water, 
the party boarding the Gar after one of the most exciting 
days in their experience. 

Nearly all the boats had landed one or more tarpons, 
and a group of anglers could be seen on the beach 
measuring their fish. Rad and Buddie came aboard the 
Gar soon after, bringing their first tarpon and greatly 
elated ; as the Commodore said, " Loaded to the guards 
with experiences." The Angler and his friend also joined 
them, and they all sat on the broad quarter-deck of the 
house-boat and talked over the day's sport although it 
was but noon. 

" There's but one feature I don't like," said Rad ; 
" this towing the fish to measure him ; it's too hard 
work." But this was a time-honored rule at Aransas. 
If the angler wished to obtain a record he towed his tar- 
pon to the beach, dragged it up, measured it, and after 
taking a scale to nail up in the inn or the club, then let 



IN THE TARPON COUNTRY 159 

the fish go, no tarpon being weighed or injured, the rec- 
ord depending entirely upon length. So Tom and Jack 
established their record of five feet ten and six feet re- 
spectively, the fishes being retained for mounting. Several 
boys had made enviable records at Aransas Pass, notably 
Master Sarazan, who took several fish ; but the record 
is held by Wilbur B. Moss, a son of Dr. Robert E. 
Moss, of San Antonio, Texas, who the year he was 
twelve years old took four tarpons, the largest measuring 
six feet one inch in length, the smallest four feet six 
inches, the others being four feet two inches and -five 
feet six inches— a notable catch even for the strenuous 
man angler. All these fish were taken in true, sports- 
man-like manner, landed on the beach and measured 
from tip to tip when lying flat. 

As the older anglers talked, the boys listened and 
learned much about this marvelous fishing-ground which 
extends literally from Tampico to New Orleans and be- 
yond to Cape Florida. They learned that the season is 
from April to November ; that the catch of the town 
of Tarpon was over seven hundred tarpons, taken with 
a rod, for the season ; that the record for the season was 
held by J. R. Wainright, of Pittsburg, with one hundred 
and sixty-nine tarpons up to September 15th; that the 
record for one day was held by J. E. Cotter with eighteen 
tarpons. They heard that on June 19, 1903, eighteen 
anglers, five of whom were ladies, caught seventy-four 
tarpons, and that one lady, Mrs. M. A. Hatfield, landed 
four large fish in one hour and thirty-five minutes ; 



i6o THE BOY ANGLERS 

while Miss Nora Fowler held the record for shortest 
time, landing her tarpon in two and a half minutes. To 
the boy or man not interested in angling such statistics 
count for little, but at Tarpon they were known to every 
one from the captain of the Life-Saving Station down 




Mullet, tarpon bait. 

to the smallest boy, and the great anglers were talked 
about by the boys with bated breath. 

" Yes, sah," said a black boatman, " yes, sah, I dun 
row Mistah Cottah long befo' he got to be a great man 
an' made his record." 

From the deck of the house-boat the boys could oc- 
casionally see the backs of tarpons, supposed to be feed- 
ing on mullet, and the anglers discussed them and their 
peculiar habits. One of the large fish hung from the 
shrouds, and the boys measured its scales, finding them 
to be four inches across, the fish being literally encased 
In silver. 

'' The tarpon is a curious fish," said the owner of the 
Texan house-boat. " They come in here about the first 
of April, but the sport does not begin in earnest until 



IN THE TARPON COUNTRY i6i 

June, the fish staying until the first norther, or until No- 
vember, then going south, making their winter headquar- 
ters from about the latitude of Tampico to the south, 
where excellent tarpon fishing is to be had all winter. 
They have two migrations a year, just like the birds, 
moving north in summer and south in winter, reaching 
all points of the Gulf and Florida, and some straying as 
far north as Cape Cod. They are supposed to spawn 
here, the interior lagoon presenting an ideal spawning- 
ground, and the young have been found in Porto Rican 
waters. " There is no question," added the Angler, 
" but that the tarpon is the greatest jumper among fishes, 
as a twelve-foot vertical and a thirty-foot horizontal 
jump has been observed. A tarpon has been known to 
kill a fisherman by leaping over the edge of nets, and 
one went through the bottom of a boat." 

That afternoon the four boys watched the men fish- 
ing for tarpon from the deck, then took their guns and 
went several miles down the beach of Mustang Island 
in search of snipe and plover, coming home at night 
with a fair bag and scores of shells, seaweeds, and other 
objects washed from the Gulf by the ever-pounding 
swell. 



CHAPTER IX 

A TEXAS JEWFISH 

The town of Sport, opposite the mooring-grounds of 
the house-boat, possessed a pecuHar fascination to the 
young anglers, as there was but one house in its corpo- 
rate limits, that being the Tarpon Club, nearly a mile and 
a half from the Pass, the intervening stretch of sand 
being almost as level as a floor with here and there a 
heap where the sand had piled up against some object ; 
but everywhere it was hardly a foot higher than the 
level of the Gulf, and across its surface ran myriads of 
sand rivers forced on by the endless wind, winding this 
way and that and visible for some distance. This vast 
desert piled up by the sea, then blown inland to the 
lagoon by the wind, was the home of thousands of white 
and yellow sand-crabs, which were so tame that when 
the boys kept perfectly quiet on the sand they would 
crawl out of their holes and gather about as though 
curious to see what manner of animals these were ; but 
at the first alarm the crabs would disappear. The sand 
stretch was alive with them. They patrolled the beach 
in bands, being the natural scavengers, and as the boys 
walked along they were constantly ahead waving their 
162 



A TEXAS JEWFISH 163 

claws. They were excellent bait, and Tom, being a 
good shot, with a twenty-two caliber rifle picked them 
off cleverly, and later they were cast into the surf to lure 
the gamy channel bass or redflsh. 

One morning as the boys sat on the beach the An- 
gler proposed a day with the jewfish. A fisherman from 
up the lagoon had reported that one had been caught in 
a net, which weighed nearly one thousand pounds. The 
schooner was gotten under way and sailed down to the 
Point of Rocks, where the curious craft was run inshore 
and anchored to the beach while the boys and their elders 
got into their boats and made ready. 

" I never hear tell of a jewfish as a game fish," said 
the Commodore, with a sniff of disgust. " I've caught 
'em with a rope and wanted a donkey engine before I 
got through ; but if some wan'll only call sawin' wood 
sport, there'll be enough to try it." 

" You know you like it," said Jack. " When I 
hook a fish you will be the first one to shout." 

The Commodore snorted, but he was fitting his rod 
together. 

The jewfish might have weighed a ton, but It did 
not matter to the boys, who all approached the game 
armed with rods and reels — the tarpon outfit previously 
described, with this exception : the bait was larger, a 
whole Spanish mackerel, supposed to be a bonne houche 
for the giant of the tribe. It was a peculiar fishing- 
ground. A few rocks jutted out from a sand-bank into 

deep water, that part of the day ran merrily out through 

12 



i64 THE BOY ANGLERS 

the pass, then turned and ran back, often bringing with 
it dark, muddy water, said to be carried down the coast 
from the Rio Grande, the Brazos, Red, and other 
rivers, the arteries of Texas. The Commodore pro- 
posed fishing from the beach, wading out, knee-deep, 
and cast thirty feet into the channel. The boys cast 
from the skiffs, the boatmen arranging them so that 
they could be shoved off at a moment's notice. The 
sun was hot, but the wind from the Gulf was refreshing. 
The strange sand-dunes loomed up everywhere, and in 
the water countless fish jumped — gars, spotted like 
leopards, moving along the surface ; rays dashing into 
the air; rippling mullets flashing in the sunlight; while 
overhead great man-of-war hawks poised on the wind, 
marvelous examples of power and grace, and along the 
surface flew skimmers, their knife-like bills cutting 
the water for shrimps or small fry. The boys watched 
the never-ending procession of nature and listened to the 
stories of the boatmen. Suddenly Jack whispered, 
" I've a strike ! " 

It was not necessary to announce it ; the reel did 
that, and something suddenly jerked a yard of line with 
a buzz from the reel ; then the line ran slowly out, one^ 
two^ three^ four^ five^ six feet, slid over the edge, and 
every angler was keyed up to the highest notch of ex- 
citement. Jack's boatman now said something and he 
dropped his thumb to the leather pad and watched the 
line straighten until the crystal drops flew from it ; then 
gave the unknown the butt, throwing his rod back with 



A TEXAS JEWFISH 165 

a firm, heavy sway, and for a second held hard and fast 
while the rod bent and bowed in a mad fashion, wig- 
wagging frantically. Then the line slipped and ran 
from the reel in as merry a caracole as one ever saw or 
listened to. Jean cast off, seized the oars, and backed 
after the fish, while a shout went up from the Commo- 
dore, who had also hooked something. As all looked 
on, he gave the butt to the fish with such force that he 
broke his rod at the joint, and losing his footing, fell 
floundering on his back in the warm and shallow water 
amid roars of laughter. The fish on Jack's line made a 
rush straight out into the channel, then striking the op- 
posite shore turned and swam up the lagoon at a pace 
which prevented the taking of any line ; yet he held it, 
having an advantage in the shallow water. 

" The other boat's got one," said the boatman, and 
turning, Tom saw Rad's boat towing away. " Do they 
come in schools ? " he queried. 

" Sometimes," was the reply. " I've seen twenty 
taken in a day." 

Jack's fish suddenly woke up, and turning quickly 
made a dash out the pass, taking two hundred feet of 
line with a scream from the reel, the boatman holding 
with the oars, Jack bearing upon the brake with all his 
force, finally stopping it j but it might have been a mad 
bull on the line as now it rushed in and under the boat, 
grounding on the flat, showing an enormous body, then 
rolling off and rushing away like a catapult to turn and 
shake its ponderous head with telling force. Jack had 



i66 THE BOY ANGLERS 

it reeled In to within seventy feet, and as Jean pulled 
out he gained rapidly, meeting a savage run cleverly, 
holding the fish, forcing it to the surface until its big 
ugly head protruded and the huge tail came slashing 
over to sweep away the enemy fifty feet distant. 

" Now reel ! " cried Jean, and he sent the skiff 
whirling toward the fish, while Jack garnered in the line 
with whirl after whirl of the reel-handle until, with a 
shout, they had the game at what the Commodore, who 
was hard by, with a gaff, called " short commons." 
How it rolled and struck out ! How it plunged, a very 
whale ! Then Jean rowed hard and Tom held the 
monster, a dead weight of no one could guess how 
many pounds, felt it coming, stopped its side rushes 
with the slight line, and holding it well in hand leaped 
overboard as the skiff grounded ; held it, while the Com- 
modore waded out and gaffed it. With a hurrah it was 
hauled in, rolling over, twisting the gaff almost out of 
the Commodore's hands, fighting hard and constantly, 
and never really giving up the battle until in the toils of 
the shallow water, where the Commodore called for 
help, three boatmen being required to drag the doughty 
monster high and dry upon the sands, where it lay fan- 
ning with its powerful gill covers, so blinking defiance 
at the observers. It was a giant, there was no mistake 
about that. Tom stretched himself out beside it on the 
beach and the fish was almost a foot longer, being six 
feet three, while its girth was enormous. It resembled 
a huge grouper, something like a black bass, a bass that 



A TEXAS JEWFISH 167 

one might have dreamed of, the very giant of its kind, 
but its head was flatter and the tail was not bass-like, 
filled out and rounded where the tail of the bass is cut 
in y indeed, the jewfish or Warsaw was a peculiar crea- 
ture. It had been landed in just one hour, but the fish 
hooked by Buddie had taken the boat directly out of the 
pass and they could now be seen near the jetty, half a 
mile away, the boy having the finest sport he had 
in Texas. Jean proposed to send Jack's fish up to 
market, so it was covered from the sun, and the boys 
laid down on the beach and rested. In the meantime 
Mr. Temple had hooked a large fish and lost his line, 
and the Commodore was rigging a new rod, now de- 
termined to add to his select list of catches the vigorous 
jewfish. While resting, Jean told them of the habits 
of the jewfish ; how it fived in the nooks and corners of 
the pass, going out at times and often coming in in 
schools. While talking, a shout was heard, and Buddie 
was seen with his boatman near the beach struggling 
with their game ; as they looked, over went the skifl^, 
throwing the occupants into the water. Jean quickly 
pushed off his skifF and rowed in that direction as fast 
as possible, the boys and the Commodore hurrying 
along the beach, as the pass had the reputation of being 
the roaming-ground of large sharks ; but before they 
reached the point they saw that Buddie and the boat- 
man were on bottom, though up to their shoulders, and 
were wading in, the boatman holding the rod over his 
head and still struggling with the game. Buddie was 



i68 THE BOY ANGLERS 

swimming, but presently he obtained a foothold, and 
grasping his rod ran inshore shouting, " We don't know 
what it is, but it capsized the skifF and threw us over." 

It appeared that he and his man were both standing 
when a sudden jerk caused them to lose their balance, 
and over went the skiff, throwing them into the region 
of the sharks. Jean picked up the skiff from his boat 
and towed it inshore, while Buddie, Tom, Jack and 
the Commodore ran down the beach to see the finish of 
the play, for the unknown, with at least three hundred 
feet of line, was swimming out the pass at no uncertain 
gait. The boy with the rod reeled as he ran, gaining 
rapidly ; but there was a point a short distance ahead 
around which the pass ended, and the vast coast of 
Texas stretched away with its line of breakers and its 
rising cloud of spume. Unless the unknown could be 
deflected it would take the line, so Buddie ran at the top 
of his speed, turned up the beach, reeling as hard as he 
could, and putting all the strain upon the rod it would 
bear. For a few seconds it was an open question, the 
pass or the beach, then the line began to point to the 
south and the boys uttered a shout, a victorious yell ; the 
fish was running into the surf and they had a clear field. 
Was there not the entire country from here to South 
America in which to play him ? Buddie waded out into 
the surf and rapidly gained line, and as the Commodore 
came limping along, highly excited, using the gaff he had 
caught up as a staff, they all moved down the wide sandy 
beach into the spume and sea-smoke of the Gulf, that 



A TEXAS JEWFISH 169 

rose high in air, swept over into the sand-dunes by the 
eternal wind. 

" What is it, Mat ? " asked Tom. 

" I reckon shark," was the reply ; " perhaps it jew- 
fish, not tarpon ; anyway, he never show his head or 
jump ; that's why I think him big sand-shark." 

" We shall find out pretty soon, by the way Bud's 
working him," said Jack. And this was true ; what- 
ever it was, it was now seen for the first on the side of 
a great roller, then lost in the rush of silvery foam it 
bore out, making so vigorous a rush that the angler lost 
twenty or thirty feet ; but he stopped it again, though 
the fish knew it was in shallow water, and endeavored 
to bore its way offshore without avail ; there was no 
forcing the fighting, as the delicate twenty-one-thread 
line would not withstand it ; so it was patient, hard 
work and constant labor of the reel. For half a mile 
this fish took the party down the coast of Mustang 
Island, past interminable sand-dunes, and then began to 
display weariness. Buddie was waist-deep in the water, 
the shallows extending out a long distance, affording a 
splendid series of breakers. He had nearly been bowled 
over by the sea time and again, and his boatman stood 
by to aid him ; but he would none of it ; he was, as the 
Commodore said, " dead game," and proposed to land 
the unknown if it took all summer. Finally, a very 
heavy sea was seen coming in. It was copper-colored 
and had a threatening aspect, so much so that the boat- 
man grasped the enthusiastic angler and forced him 



170 THE BOY ANGLERS 

inshore on the run as the sea caught the fish, and they 
saw it plainly for a second, then the big roller came 
sweeping in and shot the fish far up the beach, covering 
the boys with foam. As it fell back Buddie appeared, 
reeling for his life, and held, not a shark or a jewfish, 
nothing more nor less than a huge sting-ray ; a spotted, 
beautiful, bird-like creature, with long wing-like fins and 
slender tail ; a ray nearly nine feet across from tip to 
tip. Buddie was chagrined, but recovered his equanim- 
ity when the boatman agreed that it was the largest ray 
taken around that part of the country. " I've been try- 
ing to make a record," he said, laughing, " and I've got 
it, the ray record, and I can take the brush to tell the 
story." So the whiptail was cut off\, and after a rest 
the party started for the house-boat, not by the beach 
but over the sand-dunes, led by Mat and the boatman 
who had lived among them for years. The beach was 
very wide here, but about two hundred feet from the 
surf the sand had piled up ten, twenty, even thirty feet 
in places, and under the influence of the constant wind 
was ever moving over in the direction of the inner lagoon. 
Here and there were little channels leading into the 
dunes, and up one of these Mat led the party, coming to 
a stretch of pure undulating sand. Here and there grass 
grew, and dead limbs of trees and even trunks and some 
bushes stood above it, nature's attempts to stop the de- 
vastating sand. It was like walking through snow, 
soft, insidious, and once in the heart of the dune, out of 
direct course of the wind, the heat was intense. Now 



A TEXAS JEWFISH 171 

sliding down a hill, climbing others which brought small 
avalanches upon them, the party pressed on until the 
Commodore became stalled, and they halted to rest, a 
demoralized party. The hot sun had long since dried 
their clothing, but they were now wet with perspiration, 
with the struggle through the sliding, slippery sand. A 
few trees, almost covered, were now sighted, and sliding 
down into a runway they walked along single file, climb- 
ing again to the upper level and coming to a small house 
in the center of the white sand, heaped and cut into 
marvelous shapes. From the sand-bank across a six- 
foot gully a plank had been placed, leading to the cabin, 
over which they walked to the house of boatman Mat, 
where, while they rested and drank the cool water his 
wife brought them, they listened to the strange story of 
his disappearing home. 

" I been here about twenty year," began Mat ; 
" then this place had no sand, so I like it an' build my 
home, plant my garden. I have grapes, orange, lemon, 
olive, flowers all lak I have in my home in Italia. It 
very nice, I lak it ; feesh all day, come home, plenty to 
eat, plenty children," and Mat laughed at his brown- 
faced children gathered about. " But about six years 
ago the wind, something happen to it ; it blow all the 
time, then all at once it change two or three points to 
the south, and my neighbor told me one day the sand 
was creep over his house. I look and see it, and see it 
come my way. We build a brake six feet high, but in 
a week it reach the top, run over and come on one, two, 



172 THE BOY ANGLERS 

a dozen rivers of sand, all flowing to my house. I 
spend every morning and night shoveling sand, but 
more blow in one night than I could keep out. It 
cover my garden, my trees, my flowers. I fight it night 
and day, so did my children ; they dig, sweep, shovel, 
but it no good ; so I put stakes under my house and 
raise it four feet. I put pipe in my pump, raise it four 
feet ; bimeby my house buried, sand come in the door, 
and so you see me ten feet above my garden. All my 
trees, my flowers ten feet deep in the sand, an' all I 
can do is to keep lifting my house. Some day it sweep 
over the whole island." 

The boatman's position was pathetic, and in all their 
travels the boys saw no more singular sight than this 
cabin perched on the sand-dune, that had to be lifted 
and raised to prevent it from being lost to sight. The 
shifting sand-dunes are a peculiarity of all lands ; often 
beautiful in their flowing rivers of sand flowing on, 
changing the very face of the earth. 

It was but a short walk from the boatman's home to 
the harbor, that was also being filled up, and as the deep 
red clouds gathered in the west, as though to receive the 
sun, the fishing-party reached the yacht after an exciting 
day's sport of varied experiences. 



CHAPTER X 



THE TEN-POUNDER 



"The Commodore has passed the word for light 
tackle, I wonder what the game is to be," said Tom one 
morning, as the schooner rounded to at the entrance of a 
little inlet in Aransas Bay and dropped anchor. 

" I'll ask," replied Jack ; and going aft to the quarter- 
deck where his father and his friends sat, overhauling 
their rods, he inquired what the game for the day was. 

" We hope it is to be the ten-pounder," ^ replied Mr. 
Temple, fitting a dehcate bamboo joint together. " The 
captain tells me this is a favorite place for them, and if 
so, you will have some fine sport with a marvelous fish ; 
but you will want your split bamboo black-bass rods." 

" Did you ever think," said the Angler, when they 
were all seated under the awning, the boys busy with 
their rods and lines which were being rigged for the game, 
" what the evolution of the rod from a willow branch to 
a split bamboo means ? Walton had the charming phi- 
losophy of all ages, but he did not know the delights of 
a split bamboo ; it was not invented until 1846, being 
the production of Samuel Phillippi, of Easton, Pennsyl- 

^ Elops saurus. 



174 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



vania, and like many other great inventions or ideas, 
there are many to dispute it. But Phillippi was the first 
inventor of the spHt bamboo and a four-section rod. 
Dr. Henshell exhibited one of his original rods at the 
World's Columbian Exhibition in 1873. It was a 
trout-rod eleven feet four inches in length, weighing 
eight ounces, and all the rod-makers since owe a debt to 
Phillippi. It may be a matter of fancy," continued the 




Catfish. 



Angler, " but to my mind, the split bamboa is the ideal 
all-around rod. With it I have taken trout, salmon, 
tuna, and tarpon, and well made, it has few if any equals." 
The boatman had hauled up the skiffs which had 
been towing in a line behind the schooner, and the six 
anglers were presently seated in them and being rowed 
to a certain spot near a little inlet, where they anchored 
one or two hundred feet apart and began to fish. They 



THE TEN-POUNDER 175 

used light rods suitable for black bass, with very light 
lines ; some baited with shrimp and others with very 
small sardines. Tom secured the first prize, landing 
after a poor fight a gafF-topsail catfish, the pest of the 
salt-water angler on the Texan coast. As the boatman 
attempted to unhook it he showed the boys its eggs 
packed on the inside of the mouth, where they are car- 
ried until they hatch ; and even the young fish are pro- 
tected in this way until they can care for themselves. 
Each fisherman landed a gafF-topsail cat, and the Com- 
modore remarked that it was a pity Johnnie Grayley was 
not there with his jugs and watermelon. So ravenous 
were the cats that the Angler used up all his bait and 
rowed over to where the boys were landing cats and 
tossing them back. 

" The English people must have heard of Johnnie's 
cat," he said, laughing. " I remember a poem published 
in Punch years ago as a protest against introducing the 
catfish into England. It ran something like this : 

** Oh, do not bring the Catfish here ! 
The Catfish is a name of fear. 

Oh, spare each stream and spring. 
The Kennet Swift, the Wandle clear. 
The lake, the loch, the broad, the mere. 

From that detested thing ! 

** The Catfish is a hideous beast, 
A bottom-feeder that doth feast 
Upon unholy bait : 



176 THE BOY ANGLERS 

He's no addition to your meal, 
• He*s rather richer than the eel. 
And ranker than the skate. 

<< His face is broad, and flat, and glum ; 
He's like some monstrous miller's thumb ; 

He's bearded like the pard. 
Beholding him the grayling flee. 
The trout take refuge in the sea. 

The gudgeons go on guard .' 

** They say the Catfish climbs the trees. 
And robs the roosts, and down the breeze 

Prolongs his caterwaul. 
Ah, leave him in his western flood. 
Where Mississippi churns the mud ; 

Don't bring him here at all ! " 

" It's more than likely," said the Commodore when 
the Angler concluded, " that Johnnie Grayley read the 
poetry and made up the yarn from it." 

Jack had just made a long cast with a small sardine 
when his rod bent to the danger point and the delicate 
but musical reel gave tongue in a fashion that told an- 
other story than gaff-topsail cats ; and then into the air 
rose a silvery animated streak of lightning, quivering, 
dancing, caracoling, bending all in a breath ; so dazzling 
a creature that Jack stopped reeling to gaze at it in 
amazement. Down it went, rushing out twenty feet of 
line to appear in a totally different place, literally dancing 
on the water; now on head, again on tail, a fantasy in 



THE TEN-POUNDER 177 

silver, a long slender creature, the very ghost of a tarpon 
gone crazy. 

" What is it ? " cried Jack, reeUng and watching with 
breathless apprehension his cavorting tip. 

" Why, the ten-pounder, but about three pounds in 
this case," answered his father ; " what we are here for ; 
the gamiest fish in the sea, at least," he added, sotto voce^ 
" to my mind." 

In the meantime Tom had a strike and he added a 
dancing companion to Jack's fish. At one moment the 
air would apparently be full of fishes dancing on their 
tails, springing here and there ; then it would drop to 
immediately spring along the surface in a splendid hori- 
zontal leap, all the while the reels buzzing, shrieking, 
and scolding after the fashion of their kind. The boys 
had caught many kinds of fish, but never had seen 
anything to approach this dancing vision, this light-weight 
tarpon that, garbed in silver, piroquetted so daintily on the 
surface of the lagoon. Ten-pounders by name, they 
were far under that in real weight ; but, as the Commodore 
said, every inch was a pound compared to other fishes. 
How many jumps each fish made was impossible to de- 
termine, but Jack, who was twenty minutes landing his 
fish, was positive that it was in the air most of that time. 
In this place four ten-pounders were landed, then the 
gaff-topsail cats surged to the front and forced the anglers 
to move out into the lagoon to a hole which Jean knew, 
where more ten-pounders and sport incomparable were 
found. 



178 THE BOY ANGLERS 

" I dislike to pass the black bass to a second place," 
said the Angler as they were all bunched near the hole, 
making a Hne cast as he spoke, " but the ten-pounder is 
a delight giver, no doubt about it. I have never seen a 
real ten-pounder, though they have them in Florida, 
where they attain a length of two or three feet." 

The fishing in the lagoon proved " werry unsartin," 
as the Commodore truthfully explained, and the boat- 
men began to move about searching for new holes, a 
hole being merely a clear place in about five or six feet 
of water with a surrounding mass of weed in which 
lived gaff'-topsail cats, redfish, ten-pounders, and many 
more. It was not long before Jack and Tom were fish- 
ing together, with the Commodore now as boatman, Jean 
having gone aboard the schooner to prepare lunch, as the 
house-boat followed them about, anchoring near them. 
The boys dropped anchor at a new hole. At the first 
cast something bent the rod like a whip, making a 
straight run until hooked, then completely encircled the 
boat in so gamy a manner that the boys were puzzled. 
It did not leap, so was not a ten-pounder, and they were 
guessing, when the fish, to the merry whistle of the reel, 
coursed along the surface showing the splendid gold, sil- 
ver, and black markings of the Spanish mackerel ; then 
Jack's reel spoke in no uncertain tone, and for nearly half 
an hour they enjoyed the sport which these fine game- 
fishes can afford when the angler is equipped with light 
tackle. While they were fishing several eagle-rays were 
playing in the vicinity of the boat, repeatedly jumping 



THE TEN-POUNDER 179 

and appearing in the air like birds flapping their side 
wing-like fins. They were beautiful creatures, dark and 
spotted like a leopard, and with long, slender, whip-like 
tails that were dangerous weapons. Five fish were 
taken, and the Commodore, who had been busily en- 
gaged in baiting the hooks with shrimps, had taken Tom's 
rod and was playing a fine Spanish mackerel with much 
vigor when a shark, apparently four feet in length, leaped 
fairly into the boat. It struck on the rail and rolled in, 
giving the Commodore a sounding blow and belaboring 
everything within reach after the manner of sharks when 
out of their natural element. The Commodore started 
to his feet and endeavored to seize an oar, but the shark 
sliding down got under them and deliberately flung them 
high in air and overboard, the Commodore dancing a 
Highland fling to avoid its tail ; then slipping on a fish, he 
fell directly upon the shark and for a moment appeared 
to be riding it, the boys calling upon him to go in and 
win, and making other laughing requests difficult to 
carry out. 

" I've ridden worse things than sharks ! " shouted the 
Commodore ; and taking up a heavy club or fish-killer 
he forced it into the fish's mouth, and as the vicious 
animal gripped it like a bulldog he rose and hauled it 
over the side, shaking it off*. This extraordinary experi- 
ence attracted the attention of the rest of the party, who 
now came alongside demanding of the Commodore how 
he conjured fish into the boat, and amid much laughter 
and joking they all pulled back to the house-yacht. 
13 



i8o THE BOY ANGLERS 

" That may seem a very remarkable experience," 
said Mr. Temple, " but I know of one other case which 
happened on the coast of Maine at the little village of 
Ogunquit. A fisherman was fishing near the rocks 
when without warning a shark six feet long leaped fairly 
into the boat, nearly demoralizing the fisherman who, I 
fancy, was asleep. The occurrence is easily explained. 
The shark comes swimming along and suddenly sees the 
boat, and, perhaps alarmed by something behind, leaps 
out of the water and accidentally lands in the boat. The 
garfish often strikes in and about boats ; and I know 
an instance where a large one struck the hat of an ofii- 
cer. An instance is given in the Voyage of the Chal- 
lenger, by Moseley. But of all the jumps or leaps of 
oceanic animals that of the whale is most marvelous. 
The British ship Leander, Captain B. Hall of the Brit- 
ish Navy, was lying in the harbor of Bermuda when a 
large whale came into the roads and the men were al- 
lowed to go in chase of it. It was struck, sounded and 
came up, possibly with a view of striking the boat, but 
missed it, shooting into the air, the most extraordinary 
sight probably ever seen, as the huge mass weighed 
many tons and was sixty or seventy feet in length. It 
passed entirely over the boat, clearing it by twenty feet, 
the amazed and terrified sailors looking up to see the 
huge creature poised over them. The fall of the ani- 
mal all but sank the craft, and I doubt if any one in 
her ever forgot the experience." 

After lunch, Tom and Jack were sitting on deck 



THE TEN-POUNDER i8i 

when they noticed a curious fin on the surface, and 
making out the speckled body of a garpike, forthwith 
began to fish for this modern representativ^e of one of 
the oldest of fishes. It looked very much like its name- 
sake, the alligator, swimming clumsily in the water and 
apparently not disturbed by the baits that were cast at 
it — small mullets and large. Tom, seeing that the gar 
remained on the surface, fastened a float upon his line, 
which presently disappeared ; and acting on the sugges- 
tion of one of the boatmen, he gave it two or three min- 
utes to fairly take the bait, then struck and had the 
satisfaction of catching the singular creature after a lusty 
but not very exciting play. It was about three feet long 
and had a pair of beaks armed with sharp teeth, and was 
encased in an armor of chinalike scales, which would 
have deflected a bullet and which gave the Commodore 
some little trouble when attempting to galF it ; indeed, 
he found it impossible, and fairly caught the long-beaked 
ugly fish in a net, where it viciously snapped at every- 
thing within reach. 

That afternoon the boys went ashore on the long, 
wide beach, crossed it to the Gulf and bathed in the 
surf; then they took their shotguns and walked down 
the beach, finding numbers of plover and sandpipers to 
repay the long tramp. Gulls, pelicans, and man-of-war 
birds were common, and occasionally a big heron would 
rise and fly away with lumbering flight. By four o'clock 
they reached the yacht, with dinner enough for all hands 
and in time to see the men catch bait, which they took 



I«2 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



in \'arious ways. Large shrimps were very common 
here in shallow water, and a very fine mesh cast-net 
was used. The shrimps so closely mimicked the bottom 
that they could not be seen, hence the men merely 




Sandpipers. 

rushed into the water and hurled the net, which nearly 
always caught several hundred shrimps, which were 
shaken out on the beach — a dainty bait for many kinds 
of small fish of this vicinity. Worms, great sea slug- 
like creatures, were dug out of the sand or mud ; and 
crabs the boys chased along the shore, skilfully knock- 
ing them over with sticks. 

Just at sundown a shout was heard, and looking 
around, the boys saw Jean beckoning and running to the 
skifF. As he shoved off, he called out that there was a 
large turtle coming up the beach. Tom quickly put 



THE TEN-POUNDER 



183 



the turtle peg in the grain pole — a three-sided peglike 
affair — and in a few moments the round head of a turtle 
appeared. It evidently was feeding in a patch of dark- 
green sea-grass, and Jean cautiously pulled the boat in 
that direction, and presently Tom made out the dark 
shape moving slowly along. Nearer the boat approached, 
and when about ten feet from the turtle he cleverly 





^^ ' 


;■ ■..'.' 






1^ 






^!^^^ 


i^-' 




^ ™ 


t wy^jj ■' '^"^^%if<i'Mt-:' 




^^^ 




^^n^ 


% 




BBI:' *^''' 





Hawkbill turtle. 



tossed the peg into it. It was not a large one, but it 
jerked the boat around and towed it two hundred yards 
before it was gotten alongside, when to Tom's delight 
it was seen to be a hawkbill, the kind from which 
tortoise-shell ornaments are made. It weighed perhaps 



1 84 THE BOY ANGLERS 

forty pounds and proved an interesting trophy. That 
night as the fishing-party sat on the quarter-deck be- 
neath the awning Hstening to the waves pounding in 
with ominous roar, the boatman related many tales of 
the sea. 

" This is a curious coast," said Jean. " You see 
this ain't Texas, it's only a sand-shoal that is formed off- 
shore and strings along the whole coast, and it's the 
lightest kind of sand that gives way like water when the 
sea strikes it. I had an uncle who was a boatman on 
just such a place. Perhaps you've heard of Lost Island ? 
It had fine hotels and gardens, cottages and houses, and 
was the finest kind of resort; but it was on the sand 
just at the water's level, and everybody knew that if 
they ever had a bad storm or a hurricane it would suffer ; 
but no one had any idea that the whole thing would go, 
no more they did at Galveston. But one night in the 
middle of the season when the hotel was crowded, a 
hurricane struck it and whipped it into the sea — hotels, 
people, everything. It just went out of existence in the 
night. I had a brother in Galveston where the city is 
on just such a place as this, only higher and more of it ; 
and to show how quick a sea works on a sand-flat when 
it gets going, some one asked him to go down to the 
beach and look at the sea ; but when he got there and 
saw how much higher the top of the sea was than the 
sand, he knew that they were in for it, so he turned and 
ran back to get his wife and children to a safe place, but 
before he got to his home he had to swim ; but he got 



THE TEN-POUNDER 185 

them out on the roof, and when the house went down 
they went sailing away and got separated. He was 
washed off, but caught a tree ; and the next morning, 
after a fearful night, he saw his family all right on the 
housetop not far away — they had run into a telegraph 
pole and got jammed up, and so were saved when hun- 
dreds were drowned. Galveston will never have such 
another experience," added the Texan. " They have 
built a breakwater about it and will raise the entire city 
beyond any possibility of danger." 

" Lightning never strikes in the same place twice," 
said the Angler. " Perhaps this is true of hurricanes. 
The West Indies is a breeder of hurricanes, and they 
are liable to occur anywhere and at any time. The best 
plan is to be ready or prepared." 

So the night waned. The full moon rose and the 
great sand-dune was flooded with her radiance ; and far 
away could be seen the lurid silver glare of the phos- 
phorescent Gulf waves piling in. They could trace it 
down the coast, where only the sand-crabs and the life- 
saving patrol walked at night. 



PART III 
ANGLING IN FLORIDA 



CHAPTER XI 

IN THE WAKE OF THE AMBER-FISH 

" The charm of angling does not lie altogether in the 
fish you catch," said the Angler ; " but in the direct con- 
tact with nature as a means of developing the powers of 
observation. When you find a real angler, one who 
loves the sport, and who uses his rod fairly and honestly, 
you find a man with great natural resources. Such an 
one can steal off alone to the forest, mesa, or ocean and 
find companionship in a thousand things which appeal 
to him. We have an illustration here. I met a man 
last week who said that this was the most dismal spot 
he had ever seen — nothing but sand ; yet you boys have 
regaled me with the wonders and beauties of this very 
sand-bank. You hear music in the roar of the sea. 
You find beauties in the mirage which tosses the dunes 
into the air. You catch with the artist's eye the ripple 
of the sand made by the soft wind. You study the foot- 
prints of sandpiper, crab, and sea-bird in the vast ex- 
panse, and learn that a sand-dune, instead of being a 
desert, is really an attractive place, a solace in the days 
when the fish are not biting. And this is as it should 

189 



I90 THE BOY ANGLERS 

be. Angling, the only sport that has given us a classic 
in literature, is but a means to an end, and the end is 
not always to kill fish. To be a good angler is to be a 
keen observer of nature, to obtain all there is in it, to 
make life happier and longer; and to be a complete 
angler is not only to know all about the sport of taking 
fish, but its literature and history. There are many 
charming books on the peaceful and gentle art, and, 
mind you, I distinguish between angling and fishing. 
Fishermen may go out with a big cotton line and a club 
rod and wooden reel and slay tarpon by the score ; or 
they may fish for trout with a hand-line, or black bass 
with dynamite ; but the angler is a man of another sort ; 
he is built on other lines ; he disdains to take the advan- 
tage ; he must feel that his game has the better chance, 
as Walter Scott says, 

** No fisher 

But a well wisher 
To the game." 

He equips himself with the daintiest rod of split bam- 
boo, and it is a pleasure to know that it cost a large sum 
perhaps to repay some hard worker who gives so much 
pleasure. The angler is essentially the man with the 
rod ; and that he is a skilled artist you know. He places 
his fly by a motion of the wrist just where he wishes, 
and lures his game by the exercise of skill and clever- 
ness. He is never discouraged if the wind is in the east 
and the game far away. All the old writers on angling 



IN THE WAKE OF THE AMBER-FISH 191 

were more or less philosophers, men of peace and con- 
tentment, true lovers of nature, satisfied with their luck; 
whatever it was, on sea or land there was a happy day. 
First in the heart of the angler comes Walton and his 
classic, The Complete Angler. You may say that 
his methods have gone out of fashion, that they are 
behind the times, but that is because you have not read 
him from the right point of view. It is not what he 
caught, but what he saw and said when he went fishing 
that made the old angler and his friends immortal. You 
can not read his quaint sayings without hearing the gurgle 
of the brook, the sighing of the pine-needles, the gentle 
music of the clashing leaves, and insensibly there rises in 
your mind the picture of some mossy-banked brook 
where you have angled while the water sang sweet and 
low. 

" It was not long ago that I fished a gentle stream," 
continued the Angler, " filled with steep rocks and unsus- 
pected pools where my companions ran quickly from 
pool to pool to sooner test its qualities, while I took my 
time lying on the rocks where the brook foamed on and 
was churned into silver, or resting by the great clumps 
of wild roses listening to the song of some forest bird. 
At the end of the day they doubtless had the most fish, 
but I had that which has lived with me ever since and 
always will — the charm of companionship with inanimate 
things." 

So talked the Angler to his boys as, stretched on the 
deck of a large schooner, they crossed the Mexican Gulf. 



192 THE BOY ANGLERS 

They had left Texas, a vessel affording them convenient 
passage to the Florida Keys, parting with their friends to 
try the rod among the islands which reach out from the 
great peninsula of the land of flowers. Mr. Temple 
had an old friend on one of the keys near Biscayne Bay, 
and one hot morning the schooner ran into the little 
channel, the boat was lowered, and the party was put 
ashore, the schooner continuing on to Key West. The 
owner of Queen Conch Key was an old sponger, a 
retired wrecker, who had lived here, renting out boats to 
sportsmen and tarpon anglers. He was an old acquaint- 
ance of the Commodore, who also had been in the wreck- 
ing business years before, so they were in a short time 
provided with quarters and boats. Captain Gagger had 
a yacht, a small house-boat, several small fishing-boats 
and a launch, and his motto appeared to be, " Keep 
a-laughing " and " If you don't see what you want, ask 
for it," these sayings being painted in vivid green on the 
bow of an old ship that lay hard by almost buried in the 
sand. And that the Captain lived up to the first was at 
once evident. 

" I've known the old chap," said the Commodore, 
" nigh onto fifty year, and I never remember him sober ; 
not laughing, I mean," seeing the look of surprise on 
Tom's face. 

The Captain began smiling at breakfast and he kept 
it up with remarkable volubility all day long. 

" You jest struck it, boys," he said, placing a big 
palm on Jack's shoulder. '' We've had splendid tarpon 



IN THE WAKE OF THE AMBER-FISH 193 

fishin' ail summer, but I fancy it's something new you 
waiit after what I hear you've been doin' over where 
they raise northers, and you're jest in time for amber- 
jacks ; they're runnin' hke Spanish mackerel." 

This was enough for the boys, who immediately 
started for their tackle-boxes, while the Captain made 
ready two boats and the launch. Captain Gagger was 
what was called on the reef a Conch — that is, he hailed 
from Bahama, and was originally English. His shanty 
was a queer makeshift, being literally the cabin of an 
old ship which he had propped up and fitted with sides. 
Around it grew pink, purple, and white passion vines. 
He had planted bananas and cocoanut-palms, many of the 
latter growing near the water. On the point a grove of 
cocoanuts had been planted, and up the bay numbers of 
planters were in the cocoanut business raising the fruit 
for the Northern market. 

The Commodore shouted " All aboard " as they stood 
viewing all this, and a few moments later they were 
seated in comfortable yawls, the Captain supplying two 
tarpon guides, Captain Bob and Captain Sandy, to row 
them : tall, thin, sandy-haired Conchs, " spongers," well 
acquainted with the reef. The men indicated the rods 
Tom and Jack should use, the tackle being identical 
with that used for yellowtail in California, with twenty- 
one thread lines, short leaders, and No. 7|o O'Shaughnessy 
hook. In point of fact, the amber-jack was a cousin of 
the Californian yellowtail, bearing the same generic name 
(^Seriola^^ and resembled it very closely in shape, size, and 



194 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



weight, though the men said that the amber-jack was 
the most difficult fish to catch on the reef. The launch 
came up and towed them out to the outer reef, casting 
them off in the rich blue water, lying by, it being a 




Cocoanut palms on Florida Keys. 

smooth, calm day, while the boatmen rowed slowly up 
and down. The heat blazed down with such intensity 
that the very woodwork of the boat was hot, and Jack 
insisted that his hook hissed when it touched the water. 
But the water was so blue, the day so fair, the some- 
thing about it all so fascinating that they did not 
mind it. 



IN THE WAKE OF THE AMBER-FISH 195 

" Did you ever see such water ? How deep is it, 
Captain Sandy ? " asked Tom. 

" Forty feet, sir," replied the Captain, " and I can 
see the bottom as plain as though it were twenty." 

They were skirting the coral reef, and the bottom 
was a veritable garden, with gorgonias or sea- fans, tufts 




A coral garden. 

of deep-growing coral, plumes of yellow, brown, and 

purple, in which could be seen fishes of various kinds. 

Jack was leaning over, his face near the water, when 

zee-ee-ee-e-e ! went his reel, a mortal cry and that was 
14 



196 THE BOY ANGLERS 

the end of it, and he pulled in the line to find that the 
mullet, which was the bait, had been bitten ofF at the 
gills. 

'^ You want to strike quick, sir," said the boat- 
man. 

" The same old story," replied Jack, " thinking of 
something else;" and he tossed over the rebaited hook, 
and almost at the same moment as the boatman made a 
turn at a break in the reef, both reels sounded. How 
they protested, hissed, and sang ! high, low, short, and 
then one long blare of melody like the flash of electric 
light along a wire. Then one stopped — Jack had lost 
his fish. '' Too much thumb," he muttered. But Tom 
had hooked his and was clinging to his rod. How 
the powerful unseen fish pulled! Now rushing down 
deep into the blue sky of the ocean to the merry acclaim ; 
now rising again, giving the line, rod, and angler a pecul- 
iar thrill, then coming in to turn and dash away like a 
tiger fiercely fighting, employing every trick it knew. 
Tom had in mind the Californian yellowtail and was com- 
paring it to the famous fish ; but there was something 
different here, something stronger, bigger, and little 
wonder, as the fish came to the surface and partly rolled 
over in its strenuous attempts to escape, showing a blaze 
of black, yellow, and silver — -a fish at least five feet in 
length. 

" He's a corker, sir," whispered the oarsman, haul- 
ing upon the port oar in an attempt to keep Tom facing 
the fish, which now was racing around in a circle and 



IN THE WAKE OF THE AMBER-FISH 197 

making the reel fairly buzz in its remonstrance. Jack 
had watched the catch, and announced that time was 
up. "You've played him twenty minutes," he said. 
" That's the time for a CaHfornia yellowtail." 

" I can't help it," retorted Tom, giving the butt 
to the fish as well as he could to stop its rush. "I 
can't hold it with this line — I know just what it will 
stand." 

" He's towing us like a tug," cried Jack ; " can't 
you crowd him ? " 

Tom was doing his best, and certainly the fish was 
making a marvelous fight, taking fine all the while and 
boring down with an intensity of purpose that defied all 
attempts to stop it. 

" The trouble," said Tom, " is that this rod is out- 
classed ; I ought to have my tarpon rod. If I put on 
another pound it will buckle at the joint. See that ? " 
as the fish made an extraordinary lunge that fairly took 
Tom to his feet, the reel sounding an alarm that sounded 
so far away over the glassy water that the angler in the 
distant boat waved his hat. Tom tried to pump ; in 
fact every expedient was attempted, but he could not 
gain, as he said, " for keeps " ten feet of line, and nearly 
an hour sHpped away and the fish was still somewhere 
two hundred feet in the deep. But there is a limit even 
to amber-fish, and finally when Tom was in despair he 
gained a few feet, then found that the fish came steadily in 
and it was soon brought within twenty feet of the boat, 
where it circled in plain view, a splendid creature, throw- 



198 THE BOY ANGLERS 

ing itself half out of water vainly attempting to rush 
away. But the battle was won, though the amber-fish 
never surrendered, even when the boatman struck the 
gafF into its throat and lifted it aboard, or at least tried 
to, as the fish proved to be a colossus, and as it hung 
on the rail struck the boat sounding blows with its pon- 
derous tail. The boatman succeeded in dragging it in 
and held it up with difficulty, as it weighed sixty pounds 
— a splendid fish in every sense and game to the last. 
Tom thought it closely resembled the yellowtail, being 
known as Ser'wla lalandi. Its color was greenish above 
and vivid silver beneath ; the small dorsal fin dusky or 
dark, with a yellow band which ran through the eye, 
giving it a beautiful appearance, the latter being large, 
fiery, and flashing like that of its Californian ally. The 
pectoral and ventrals were yellow and dusky ; all in all, 
a most attractive fish, well typifying the finest game- 
fishes of the sea. 

As the sun was going down, the anglers turned into 
the channel and joined the launch. Mr. Temple had 
taken several jacks and a small amber-fish, and the boys 
were delighted to learn that their fish was in all proba- 
bility the record fish for boys, at least so far as Captain 
Gagger and his men knew. As they sat on the beach 
that evening watching the wonderful phosphorescence of 
the water, the Captain related his experience with the 
cougars, which a few years ago swam from one key 
to another and carried off his pigs and routed every 
one. 




Cougars treed by peccaries. 



200 THE BOY ANGLERS 

" They must have been starving," said the Angler, 
" as in my experience in the West the mountain-lion, as 
it is called there, is a great coward ; and down in 
Southern Mexico I have known them to be treed by 
peccaries. In one of our hunts we came upon a tree 
in which sat two big cougars, and around the base was 
a herd of peccaries that had run the game to cover." 



CHAPTER XII 

ON THE INDIAN RIVER 

The keys reaching out from Florida seemed endless 
to the boys, who found them most interesting. Many 
were covered with mangroves — a small tree especially 
adapted to the work of building up land in the shallows. 
The trees bore a seed very similar to a cigar in shape 
which was found floating everywhere upright in the 
water. When it grounded in the mud little rootlets 
started and grew rapidly ; then several leaves would 
spring forth, and the mangrove, after several trials, would 
appear a tree growing in the water. The branching 
roots formed a lodging-place for mud, and in a short 
time an island or land above the surface appeared, to grow, 
increase, and become the home of innumerable birds. 
The boys never wearied walking over the keys, crawling 
through the mangrove forests and studying the many 
strange birds found there. They found nests of cranes 
and herons, colonies of the beautiful flier, the man-of- 
war hawk, and many more, and by skilful climbing, pos- 
ing their cameras in the trees, secured many pictures of 
the birds of the region in various stages. The flats 

201 



202 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



between the keys were equally prolific, abounding In ani- 
mal life — sharks, sawfish, mousefish and game of various 
kinds. In eight or ten feet of water where old roots 




Mangrove trees on Florida Keys, 

abounded many strange and beautiful fishes were dis- 
covered — angels, parrot-fishes, porcupine, and cow- 
fishes, the singular bat-shaped malthea and others. 



ON THE INDIAN RIVER 203 

After two weeks in this anglers' paradise Mr. Tem- 
ple chartered Captain Gagger's big flat-bottom schooner, 
and they sailed up the coast, entering the Indian River, 
the long stretch of shallow water formed by the outly- 
ing sand-banks on the southeast coast of Florida. Here 




Captain Gagger's schooner. 

in the various passes, through which they could enter the 
waters of the Gulf Stream, the party fished, finding sport 
far exceeding anything found among the keys. Here 
the boys had their first experience with the large crevalle 
(Caranx), the splendid fish making a remarkable fight 
when taken with medium weight rods. 

One day while fishing at the pass Tom had a strike 
that nearly jerked the rod from his hands. The line 
hissed through the water, the reel screamed, and the rush 




The mousefish. 



ON THE INDIAN RIVER 205 

was so vigorous that the Commodore cast off the moor- 
ings and took the oars, the fish slowly towing them out 
of the pass. 

" Must be a shark," said Tom, breathing hard and 
striving to lift the rod against the plucky fish. 

" Looks that way," replied the Commodore, pulling 
hard against the fish and trying to stop it. 

" If that's the case," said Jack, " suppose we go in- 
shore and you can land me on the beach." 

This being agreeable to Tom, the Commodore pulled 
in, but just then the game charged up the pass toward 
the land, then changing its mind it swung around in a 
big circle, charged up the pass toward the river, and they 
sat and allowed the fish to tow them in the general direc- 
tion of port, the schooner being anchored off-' a small 
fishing hamlet. Reaching shallow water the game turned 
again, and Tom reeled with all his might, while the 
Commodore held the dinghy. In a few moments they 
saw a big, black form roll over two hundred or more 
feet away to plunge down out of sight. 

" Porpoise ! " shouted Jack, greatly excited. 

"No, sir^ if you'll excuse me, no porpoise there," 
retorted the Commodore, red in the face from his exer- 
tions, pulling hard on the port oar in his endeavors to 
keep the young angler facing the fish. " Now give it to 
him, sir," and the Commodore backed water as Tom 
reeled as fast as his hand could move. 

" Hurrah ! " shouted Jack ; " I see him, a jewfish, a 
very whale." 




Batfish, 



ON THE INDIAN RIVER 207 

" Yes,'* said the Commodore, rising ; " by the pow- 
ers, a black jewfish, the verra king of the groupers ! 
Don't lose him." 

The fish was in the toils. By some mistake of 
judgment it had rushed into shallow water, and Tom 
had fought it to a standstill, the big creature remaining 
on the bottom, shaking its ponderous head from side to 
side in a vain effort to dislodge the hook. But the effort 
was useless, and before the fish could recover and make 
a rush they were over it. With a whirl of his reel Tom 
brought the fish to the surface, where it rolled and tossed 
the water over them in its impotent rage, presenting a 
remarkable appearance. The Commodore dropped the 
oars, and, as Tom rose and attempted to lead it forward, 
the long gaff reached out and caught it under the gills, 
and up came the enormous head out of water, the first 
black grouper of the size ever taken by a boy with the 
rod and reel, so far as known. Jack passed a rope 
through the gills and mouth, and the game was theirs, 
altogether too large to be taken aboard the dinghy, so 
the boys took the oars and slowly pulled to the yacht, 
announcing their victory by a rousing cheer. The 
grouper was fastened to a block and tackle and triced 
up, and found to weigh one hundred and forty pounds. 

" He is a corker," said the Commodore, mopping 
his face as he stood before the big fish. 

" Nuthin' to a grouper caught here by a Seminole in 
'57," said Captain Sandy, taking off his old straw hat 
and winking at the Commodore with his only eye. 



2o8 THE BOY ANGLERS 

" How's that ? " asked the Commodore. 

" Why, they hooked onto him one morning and he 
towed the boat up and down the length of the Indian 
River for two days — couldn't do nuthin' with him, and 
thought it was a sherk. But on the third day they got 
him ; they hauled him inshore and bent over a big tree 
and tied the grouper to it ; then at the word let go, and 
the tree jest natchrally jerked the fish up into the bush." 

" Did they weigh him ? " asked the Commodore. 

" No, they didn't have no scales ; but you kin judge 
of his heft and length by the fact that when he left the 
water the river dropped two foot." 

Captain Sandy looked very solemn while relating this 
veracious yarn, and it was several seconds before the 
boys appreciated the point and enjoyed the laugh at 
their expense. The Angler had been shooting jacks 
with his rifle from the deck of the schooner, and had 
secured several, which were being converted into a 
savory chowder by the cook, and he now sat with his 
boys on the deck, under the awning, trying to get cool 
after the hot morning in the sun. 

" Captain Sandy," he said, " your tale is a good one, 
but I had an experience this morning that was quite as 
remarkable, and true." 

" How so, sir ? " asked the skipper. 

" We were sailing up the little river beyond here 
with a free wind, just to see if we could run across a 
manatee, when we came to a narrow part and I saw 
that we were driving a school of fish ahead of us. They 




Florida manatee. 



210 THE BOY ANGLERS 

fairly covered the water, and I thought they were mul- 
lets. The stream became narrower and narrower, and 
then the wind died down and we fell off broadside to 
the stream and drifted. Suddenly I noticed that the 
fishes were coming down-stream, and when they were 
within twenty or thirty feet of us they saw the boat, and 
evidently thinking that they were trapped began to jump 
and came on. Well," said the Angler after a pause, 
as though to think of a simile, " did you ever see men 
trap-shooting ? They came on like the clay pigeons, 
apparently trying to leap over the boat. Some did, but 
they came with such a rush that we had to dodge. 
Several struck the boat and eight or more hit the sail 
and dropped into the cockpit. We were literally bom- 
barded with fish, and the interesting part of it was that 
when they left the water they turned on their sides and 
offered a broad surface to the air which, doubtless, aided 
in carrying them along. We caught eighteen in all." 

Captain Sandy smiled, but the Angler called to the 
cook to bring up the " bombarders," and forthwith 
Paublo appeared holding up a splendid string of pom- 
panos, all taken in the manner described. 

" That beats me," exclaimed Captain Sandy. " The 
proof of the puddin' is in the eatin' of it, and when you 
begin to prove your fish stories in the same way I'll 
take a back seat ; but I'd like a front one when them 
pompanos is briled — they can't be beat." 

" What's that ? " cried Tom, as a report like the 
discharge of a cannon was heard. Turning, the crew 



ON THE INDIAN RIVER 211 

saw a mass of foam on the otherwise still water, and 
near it a great black shadow moving away. 

" A big ray," said Captain Sandy. 

"There's four or five," said one of the men, jump- 
ing into the shrouds. 

" Are you with me, boys ? " asked Captain Sandy. 

" I am if you will let me use the grains," said Jack. 

" Tumble in," replied Captain Sandy, briefly. He 
had the dinghy alongside in a moment. The men took 
the grains and rope out of the fore rigging, where it was 
lashed, and handed it to Jack. The Captain took the 
oars, Tom the stern, and they pushed ofF. 

" Don't take any chances," called the Angler. " I've 
tried conclusions with those fellows ; a Texan steer is 
nothing to one." 

Jack nodded and coiled his rope in the bow, making 
the end fast to a small water-keg kept for the purpose, 
and the Captain slowly pulled toward the center of the 
river. The grains was a pole nine feet in length, of 
yellow pine, slender and pliable. One end was sharp- 
ened to a point, and over this fitted an iron cap from 
which extended two barbed prongs about four inches 
long, the barbs setting into the iron, cleverly working 
on a hinge. To the cap was fastened the line which 
led up the pole, and was held by the " grainer." In a 
word, the " grains " was a long two-pronged spear so 
rigged that the pole unshipped after action. Jack had 
used it before, and now stood in the bow carrying the 
pole lightly in both hands, holding it parallel to the 
15 



212 THE BOY ANGLERS 

water but across the boat, his left hand about seven feet 
from the barbs, the right five feet higher. With this 
simple weapon much of the game requiring a spear is 
taken in Florida, from the crayfish to the big barracuda. 
Captain Gagger had gone aloft to see if he could 
sight the ray, and he now shouted " Hard a starboard ! " 
Captain Sandy pulled hard around to the south, and had 
gone about one hundred yards when " Dead ahead ! " 
came the hail. The next moment Jack saw a black 
triangular-shaped fin rise not thirty feet from the dinghy. 
Down it went, the fish evidently swimming in a circle ; 
and as it moved by he drew back and sent the pole 
quivering through the air ; and then, and then — To 
Jack the whole bottom of the sea appeared to rise and 
turn over. The air was filled with spray. Something 
sounded like the flapping of mighty wings and looked 
like it, too, as a huge, birdlike fish essayed to rise into 
the air, then fell with a resounding crash that nearly 
swamped the dinghy. Jack dancing about to clear the 
flying line. Captain Sandy was pulling for his life, as 
he said later, to get the dinghy under way, but it seemed 
but a few seconds before the last coil went over, and 
Jack seized the keg and lay back in the boat flat and 
hung on, driving the wildest of game by a single line. 
The river at this point was not over twenty feet in 
depth, if that, yet it seemed to the two boys that the 
dinghy would be hauled under water, so fierce was the 
rush, so tremendous the power displayed. Captain Sandy 
jerked in his oars, handing one to Tom to steer by, and 



ON THE INDIAN RIVER 213 

for se/eral moments they lay low and gazed in wonder- 
ment at the speed they were making. 

" Beats a steamboat all holler," said Captain Sandy ; 
"when he turns, jerk her round with the scull or we'll 
git left in the corner." 

" But will it turn ? " asked Jack with a sort of gasp, 
looking up. 

" It'll turn the minute you begin to haul on the 
line," replied the skipper ; " leastways all that I've 
taken here have \ but I've been dumped twict, so go 
easy." 

Jack was holding on to the keg with all his strength, 
ready to toss it over if the pace became too warm. His 
arms ached as though they were being pulled out, and 
just as it was growing unendurable Captain Sandy said 
they might as well take a turn ; so he took the keg, then 
catching the line, and both began to haul. After con- 
siderable effort they gained ten feet, when the fish sud- 
denly turned, sweeping around in a circle so rapidly that 
Tom found it almost impossible to pull the dinghy about 
before they were rushing over the back track with un- 
abated speed. 

" Heave o' aho ! now, heave o' ! " shouted Captain 
Sandy. " Aho, ah-he ! " and so on in such a queer 
chanty that Jack had to laugh, then joined in. " Two 
men pulled on a red-back whale; oh, ho ! ah-he! " chanted 
Captain Sandy. " Now," and they hauled as they never 
had before, at least so it seemed, but still two hun- 
dred feet distant from the flying game that was now tak- 



214 THE BOY ANGLERS 

ing them near the yacht, again disdaining the pass so 
invitingly near. 

" He's lost ! if he ever finds that pass, we're up. 
Two men hauled on a red-back whale ; oh, he ! oh, ho ! " 
shouted Captain Sandy, and then something happened. 
They were rushing along very near the schooner, and 
could see all hands watching them and hear their shouts. 
Tom waved his hat and cheered, then the strain on the 
line suddenly ceased. 

" Gone, by jingo ! " cried Captain Sandy ; then 
" Lookout ! Jerk her round ; round with her ! Gimme 
that oar," but the Captain was too late, and the next mo- 
ment there came a jerk on the line that pulled the dinghy 
around so suddenly that she careened violently, the 
anglers slid to one side, and the water poured in. All 
three occupants leaped overboard, as the dinghy filled, and 
swam alongside, to see their keg rushing away up the river 
again. " Jdios ! " shouted Captain Sandy, waving his 
straw hat ; then lifting the dinghy to roll some of the 
water out of her they took position, Tom and Jack on 
either side and Sandy astern, and began the wearisome 
task of swimming and pushing the dinghy to the yacht, 
a proceeding which was greeted with laughter and shouts 
by those on board the schooner who had witnessed the 
sudden ending of the big ray hunt. They had not gone 
far before the Commodore came out with the skiff and 
picked them up, and shortly after the boys were telling 
the story aboard, and dilating upon the strength and 
power of the ray. 



ON THE INDIAN RIVER 215 

" I've seen men nearly frightened to death by one of 
them fish," said Captain Sandy, who had donned dry 
clothing. " You see, they have what are like two arms 
in front, and often in swimming along in shallow water 
they run into a pile or something of that kind and then 
you see fun. Some years ago a schooner was lying m 
the harbor of one of the keys. There wasn't a 
breath of wind, in fact, it was a dead calm, and all 
hands, except the cook, was ashore hunting turtle-eggs, 
when all at once the anchor-chain gave a jerk or two, so 
that the links clanked and the schooner started ahead, 
slow at first, but gradually gaining headway and moving 
out of the channel with anchor-chain down. The men 
on the beach saw her going, and jest stood and looked; 
then one got his senses and yelled out ' Schooner ahoy ! ' 
and out of the galley came the black cook. He jest 
gave two or three looks around, see the sails furled and 
no wind, yet the schooner moving out to sea, then ran 
astern and jumped overboard and swam to the reef, where 
he waded ashore. The mate happened to be up the 
island a way, and when he saw her he got the men in a 
boat, and pulling across the shoal they overtook her. 
She was due to sail that afternoon, and as she was going 
out the right channel they let her run for three miles ; 
then she stopped, and the men manned the capstan, took 
in the anchor and found a ray hooked on to it that meas- 
ured over twenty feet from side to side. You see, the 
fish had been swimming along, and had run into the 
chain and thrown its clasper fins about it in fright, and 



2l6 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



pushed on, swimming as hard as It could, easily lifting 
the anchor from the bottom and towing the schooner 
along until the point of the fluke had been forced into 
it. I know of this case, as I had a shipmate aboard, 
and I have heard of others, and in nearly every one the 
men were scared half out of their senses." 

If the day had a charm in this region, what can be 
said of the night ? Tom and Jack and their father 
remained on deck until late listening to the stories of the 



r».* 




Florida alligators. 

men, of alligator hunts, the weird tales of the Gulf in 
the long ago when wrecking was the favorite calling, or 
when the Semlnoles were in their prime. Many of the 
large fishes feed at night, and, while there was no wind, 
there was a constant commotion, leaping and splashing 
all about, followed In every case by marvelous displays 
of phosphorescence, while streamers and trails of light 



ON THE INDIAN RIVER 217 

could be seen here and there, telHng of the passage of 
some large fish. The sky was wonderfully clear, and 
from the land came strange sounds — the calls of animals 
of the night, the cry of birds, and an odor of the forest, 
of the great swamp not so far away. When the wind 
hauled to the east, the soft booming of the sea on the 
long hne of sand came down the wind, lights broke out 
here and there, forest fires adding to the charm of this 
semitropic night in the land of the fountain of eternal 
youth, a fountain which the boys found ; at least, they 
discovered its secret, which was to live out of doors in 
close touch with the works of the great Giver of all 
nature. 



CHAPTER XIII 

FISHING IN THE SURF 

" What luck ? " shouted Tom, as the Commodore 
came rowing down a broad river of sunlight, having gone 
before sunrise to some ledge he had heard of, supposed 
to be famous for the gray snapper. 

" Great, sir," he replied, pulling alongside. 

" But where are the fish, the gray snappers for break- 
fast, the mullet ?" 

" There ye are, sir ! " exclaimed the Commodore, 
puffing out his cheeks in indignation and dropping into 
a canvas chair on deck. " Is it feesh that always makes 
feeshin' ? Na, na. I had no bite the whole mornin', 
but I tell ye, Mr. Tom, I never had so happy a feeshin'- 
day in me life. You see, when I pulled off I sailed over 
a sea of purple, an' dead ahead was a wall of deep ver- 
milion, the like I never see, an' when I dropped my kil- 
lick off the ledge ye'd thought I was in the theater, such 
color on sea and sky, such blendin', changin' of tints an' 
colors. Did ye ever think, Mr. Tom," continued the 
Commodore, " that the water, sky, and heavens is a big 
stage, an' there was shiftin', changin', an' new scenes 
218 



FISHING IN THE SURF 219 

comin' and goin' the like ye see nowhere else ? That's 
what I thought this mornin'. The purple sea began to 
change into red, deeper and deeper, then vermilion, as the 
cloud-banks in the east changed, an up through them 
came rays and streaks of yellow fiery light. Lighter it 
got, an' I fancied I could hear, d'ye mind, the noise of 
the rumblin' of shiftin' scenes ; but it was the poundin' 
of the sea on the outer reef, the orchestry of the show. 
Then the rays got bigger an' wider, an' changed to gold, 
yellow, an' ye'd thmk the heavens was afire ; then up 
burst the sun, a globe of red gold, a-tremblin' with light, 
ablaze with glory. Then the purple seas an' the ver- 
milion clouds melted, an' the sky grew blue, faint-like at 
first, then deep. Ah, it was a bonnie change that ! I 
caught nothin' but the view of the sunrise, but I never 
see the like," and the Commodore looked so solemn that 
Tom did not venture to joke with him. 

The old sailor was a true angler. He knew that, 
after all, the fish were but the means of taking the angler 
into the fields and groves of land or ocean, and that they 
were the real attractions ranking with the sport itself, 
charms and delights that more than compensated for 
poor luck in taking game, and Tom never forgot the 
lesson taught so crudely, perhaps, by the old boatman 
with a big strain of romance in his make-up. 

For several days the Angler fished the various points 
on the river, then they sailed north, coming to anchor 
not far from the mouth of the St. John's, where the 
party were to take the boat for Jacksonville and return 



220 THE BOY ANGLERS 

home. Here they were joined by friends from the city 
but twenty miles away, who told Mr. Temple an inspir- 
ing tale of some fine channel bass fishing in the surf, and 
one morning found the fishing-party on the beach with 
rods on shoulder walking down the great sandy stretch 
of Amelia Island, one of the finest beaches in this coun-= 
try, hard and broad at low tide. Ahead of them flew 
countless snipe and plover, so tame that they almost al- 
lowed the anglers to reach them, then rising and flutter- 
ing along, turning so that one moment they appeared like 
a shower of silver stars against the blue, then disappeared 
to flash out again, as Tom said, like silver dollars or tar- 
pon scales dropping from the sky. They walked a mile 
up the beach listening to the roar of the breakers and 
watching with gleaming eyes the silver foam as it reached 
away interminably, then stopped at an old wreck that, 
half-buried in the sand, marked the place where their 
friends had found the bass. It was a hot morning, and 
the anglers were in the lightest of costumes. The boat- 
man laid the bait-cans of mullet on the sands, and the 
anglers were soon engaged in putting their rods together, 
shipping reels on the seats. The tackle was identical 
with that described for yellowtail in California, except 
that a short leader was used and a light sinker to keep 
the line from being tossed in by the surf, which was 
heavy — a splendid spectacle. Young mullets and sardines 
about four inches long were used for bait, and when all 
were ready the four anglers waded out into the exhilarat- 
ing surf, about fifty feet apart, the boatmen with their 



FISHING IN THE SURF 221 

gafFs and the bait following. The water was warm, even 
hot inshore, and the beach very sloping, so they waded 
out some distance before it was knee-deep, then moved 
on cautiously, as the waves were high, and, reaching a 
location where the water was midway between knee and 
waist, began to cast. 

Tom and Jack had their lines reeled up so that the 
leader was at the tip, then with both hands they made 
overcasts which sent the mullet one hundred feet out 
into the surf. It was exciting work, as they shortly dis- 
covered. A big wave struck the Commodore, bowling 
him over and over, and it was necessary to dodge them, 
take them side on, or jump high as they came rolling in. 
Every three or four waves were large, then followed a 
series of small ones to be followed again by larger. In a 
short time, by watching the waves, the boys were able 
to hold their own against them, the activity of which 
added not a little to the excitement of the sport. Jack 
was the lucky angler. He had made a splendid cast, one 
hundred and twenty-five feet, according to the Commo- 
dore, his mullet dropping into a clear spot between the 
breakers in water estimated at ten or twelve feet in depth. 
It had barely time to reach the bottom when the reel 
screamed like a wounded hare, and Jack was seen giving 
the butt to something which appeared determined to 
carry rod and angler out to sea. But Jack held it for a 
moment, then slowly backed in, giving line as he went, 
the splendid fish racing directly away on the surface. 
In water knee-deep Jack now began the play. 



222 THE BOY ANGLERS 

" Look at that ! " exclaimed the Commodore, for- 
getting his own angling ethics as the fish flashed on the 
crest of a roller that came tumbling on, Jack reeling for 
his life. But it was for only a moment. The game 
plunged into the blue comber, and made the reel sing 
and groan as it tore off the line. It now turned up the 
shore, running parallel to the waves, and Jack, who had 
been edging in, gaining all the while, now ran along the 
shining sands ; now holding the game, then giving line as 
it rushed, stopping to slip the butt into the waist-rod 
cap he wore, to reel and reel, only to lose as the gamy 
creature went directly away with a force that threatened 
the very life of the tackle. Shouts from below told him 
that some one else had hooked, and, seeing a spit running 
out that might endanger his chances of success, he gave 
the gallant fish the butt, held it to the danger point and 
turned it splendidly, at least so said the Commodore, 
who was prancing along the sands after him, gaff in 
hand, now wading out into the surf, now coming back 
excited beyond anything, and enjoying the splendid play 
as well as though he held the rod. 

" Ye made that turn well, sir ; Isaac Walton him- 
self could na' done better with his old gudgeons. Ah, 
but he's a boonnie feesh ! Look at him ! " as the big 
bass went caracoling along. Jack running to keep up, 
the Commodore following as best he could, as the bass 
could be seen in high and beautiful relief against the 
green combing seas that reared themselves, until break- 
ing into silver foam and spume as though purposely to 



FISHING IN THE SURF 223 

form a background for the fish. Down the beach they 
went : Jack now out in the surf with a dash, to reel 
and reel ; then coming in, the rod bending, the fish 
straining every muscle, bearing off bravely ; then in a 
flurry of breaking sea Jack turned it inshore, reeled 
wildly, backing in, beaten in the face by the surf, nearly 
overturned, but winning ; reeling the bass in, ever in, 
until it was well within the realm of the gaffer, when 
the Commodore gaffed it in gallant fashion and dragged 
it in — he could not lift it — over the laughing waters and 
its silvery foam, high upon the sands. 

" Good for ye ! " he cried. And Jack, wet through, 
dripping like a fish himself, breathing hard from his ex- 
ertions, lifted it up, displaying a fish four feet in length, 
with a curious spot on each side of its tail — the king of 
the game-fishes of this prolific region. The shouts of 
other anglers, boatmen or gaffers, dashing here and there 
in the surf, made a most spirited picture, and Jack 
hastened to rebait his hook, and insisting that the Com- 
modore should take a rod instead of gaff, knowing well 
that the old man was aching to play a channel bass, he 
again ran into the surf and cast far out. The Angler 
had hooked a monster which took him so far out that 
he was more than once bowled from his feet by the bil- 
lows, and literally fished as he swam, while his friend 
could be seen far down the shore slowly leading in a 
fish that was fighting and protesting every inch. Tom 
had landed a fifteen-pounder, and was back again casting 
and recasting. Almost every sea now went over the 



224 THE BOY ANGLERS 

anglers or lifted them from their feet as they grew 
bolder, and certainly no angling could compete with it 
in dash, abandon, and spectacular interest. Tom threw 
himself on his back and rode in on a roller to rebait his 
hook, his rod being held aloft like a mast. In two 
hours the party landed eight fine bass averaging fifteen 
pounds, while Jack's fish certainly was the record for 
that particular locality and the style of fishing. The 
method most in vogue among the natives at this haunt 
of the channel bass in the surf, was to use heavy cast 
lines and sinkers, whirling the bait far out into the surf, 
wading out to the walking limit ; then when a fish was 
hooked turn, and with line over the shoulder, run in- 
shore, aided by the waves, fairly rushing the fish upon 
the beach. On their way back the boys met several 
parties — Crackers, the Commodore called them — fishing 
in this unsportsmanlike manner, but the Angler said 
they were justified when the game was needed for the 
large family somewhere back in the bush alongshore. 

The fishing-party had lunch on the sandy beach on 
this happy day. The men who had brought a cast-net 
caught some mullet, and presently had them over the 
fire ; and lying on the sand eating fried mullet and plover 
and jack-snipe roasted by having a branch run through 
and slowly cooked over the hot coals, was conducive 
to a high state of enjoyment if the weather was hot. 
Later they fished again for bass, where a party of negroes 
were hauling in the splendid fish, giving them their 
catch. Near here a shark-catcher's camp was found. 









;'l 






3 

03 












^Vi/V 



- V ' '■ ^' Iv^J w/' r'l "■ ' ; : 












226 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



the men taking the large sand-sharks on hand-lines or 
ropes for the livers that were tried out in great vats, 
while some hauled the seine for other fish. As they 
passed the camp the moon was rising, and the negroes 
were seen sitting about singing the old melodies so 




Ancient fish-hooks. 



well known in the South, " The Yellow Rose of 
Texas," " Suwanee River," and others, the rich voices 
filling the air with music. 



FISHING IN THE SURF 227 

The day following the yacht ran into Pilottown and 
Mayport, and the boys spent the day among the sand- 
dunes, where they saw a fisherman's house which had 
been buried by the sand during his absence. At Pilot- 
town they dug in the old oyster-beds which Hned the 
shore, finding quantities of old pottery telling of the 
ancient inhabitants ; remains of old bone or shell-fish 
hooks, which the Angler said bore some resemblance to 
those found in the deposits of Switzerland, and at Santa 
Catalina Island. After several days' rest ashore, the 
fishing-tackle w^as packed and the party took the steamer 
for Jacksonville, and shortly after were on the way 
across the continent. 



16 



PART IV 

ON THE ST. LAWRENCE 
AND ELSEWHERE 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE DELIGHT MAKERS 

In all the lands famous for their fishing streams and 
lakes it would, perhaps, be difficult to find a region more 
delightful from nearly every point of view than that 
known as the Thousand Islands, extending from Clay- 
ton, New York, near Lake Ontario, down the St. Law- 
rence. Here the river is eight or ten miles wide, yet 
this is not realized, as it is filled with islands of all 
kinds and descriptions — big, small, long, rocky, well- 
wooded, barren-^in fact, every possible condition or stage 
of an island is found here, constituting a maze of chan- 
nels well calculated to confuse the navigator. Nearly 
all the islands are well-wooded, hillv, and picturesque, 
abounding in beautiful trees and vales filled with wild 
flowers and berries. Some are environed by masses of 
wild roses whose petals are a deeper pink than those 
found elsewhere. Some are bold and forbidding. Others 
abound in placid harbors, and all are ideal places for 
those who wish to leave the rumble and roar of great 
cities far behind. One island not far from Clayton is 
famous for its splendid grove of trees. It is two miles 

231 



232 THE BOY ANGLERS 

long and half a mile wide, abounding in trails and walks 
which lead the stroller through a picturesque region, al- 
ways bringing him out upon some new vista of placid 
waters and islands in the distance. 

On the north side, opposite a beautiful bay formed 
by three or more islands, several cottages nestled among 
the trees, surrounded by wide piazzas from v/hich one 
could look through the branches upon a fair stretch of 
water — the haunt of the black bass, the muscallonge, and 
pickerel. At the water's edge were two fine boat-houses, 
each holding several boats, the famous St. Lawrence 
skiffs, while near at hand swung two sailboats tugging 
at their lines. On the boat-house roof were inviting 
seats, and here sat the Commodore, Tom, and Jack listen- 
ing to the Angler's old, old story how, not ten miles from 
where they were sitting, he had, twenty years before, 
seen their mother catch a five-and-a-half-pound bass, the 
record for a number of seasons. 

The anglers had shifted the scene of their opera- 
tions to Murray Isle, and were fishing the river and lakes 
for the great fresh-water game-fishes of the East. Yel- 
lowtail, tarpon, and tuna tackle had been left at home, 
and the rods spread out on the top of the boat-house told 
a very different story and of diff^erent game. They were 
of split bamboo and greenheart, and known severally as 
trout and black bass, muscallonge and salmon rods, and 
were a delight to the eye as they lay on the canvas-cov- 
ered roof of the boat-house. The trout rods, delicate as 
whips, were of split bamboo, several of greenheart, the 



THE DELIGHT MAKERS 233 

latter being cheap and good in casting, though the Angler 
had a theory that fishing-tackle should be of the best and 
simplest, "good and plain." The rods might have been 
divided into two classes — bait rods and fly rods. The 
former were from eight to eight and a half feet in length, 
and weighed from eight to eight and a half ounces, and 
were intended to cast minnows, frog, or artificial baits. 
Then came the fly rods, whips so delicate, some of them, 
that it seemed impossible that a fish of any pretension 
should be taken on them. They were from ten to ten 
and a half feet in length, and weighed from six to eight 
ounces. 

It was delightful to watch the Angler and Commo- 
dore as they discussed the merits of the rods, took them 
carefully from the case and joined them, putting a touch 
of oil on the German-silver joints here and there and 
pushing them directly in, not screwing ; rubbing up the 
German-silver guides, polishing the reel seat and cap of 
the butt, handling them as one would a child. 

" You don't want too many rods," remarked the 
Angler, who really had a number. " Two good ones 
with four or five tips each is my idea, as it is rare that 
you break a butt ; but tips will break in the order of 
things, especially when you are ofF in the wilderness 
where the fish are biting. Look well to your tips ; 
change them often so they will not become bent, and 
when they do, just a little heat over a lamp will, if of 
greenheart, straighten them. Keep the rod well var- 
nished. Dry it always after using ; in fact, give it the 



234 THE BOY ANGLERS 

same attention you would a good watch. The subject 
of rods is a fascinating one," continued the Angler, " and, 
while it is well to know how to make a rod and repair 
it, it is such an art in itself that one should buy rods 
only from the best makers. The split bamboo stands 
first. A good rod can be had for from twelve to thirty 
dollars, and a fine one up to fifty. Machine-made 
split bamboos can be had for a dollar or so, but are not 
to be commended. If it must be a cheap rod make it 
lancewood or greenheart, an excellent rod being made 
for a small sum, say from four to ten dollars. Split 
bamboos cost the most because they are made up of splits, 
often six or more, cemented together and graded. Noib 
wood makes a fine rod. It is, I believe, a South Amer- 
ican variety of greenheart. Then comes bathabara 
wood, good rods of this costing from six to thirteen dol- 
lars. Lancewood is the cheapest. The rods from this 
cost from two to ten dollars. Many anglers prefer steel 
rods, which range in price from five to fourteen dollars, 
and are good all-round rods. I have seen one which 
was used on trout or twenty-pound yellowtail with equal 
facility." 

The reels were a great contrast to the huge tarpon 
and tuna machines. Those for the bait rods were single 
multipliers ; that is, one turn of the handle made two 
revolutions, and gained twice as much line as it appeared 
to. It was of rubber and German silver, light, and held 
upon its narrow spool about two hundred feet of line. 
The reel was so perfect that when the click was thrown 



THE DELIGHT MAKERS 



235 



off it ran a long time, and the click of steel, not brass, 
had a very musical voice ; in fact, the Commodore said 
he always picked out a reel by its tone or by the sound 
it made. The reels for the fly-rods were different. The 
Angler preferred a non-multiplier or a single-action reel 
with a musical click, holding about one hundred and 
thirty feet of line, and he gave the boys an interesting 
demonstration of what constitutes a well-mounted rod. 
He handed Jack a rod and asked him how it felt. Jack 
whipped it as in casting, balanced it, and pronounced it 
too heavy at the butt. 

" Right," said his father ; " you | i I 

have hit it exactly. The weight 
should be so well proportioned that 
the rod feels right. In some the 
middle joint is too heavy ; again, 
the tip overbalances the rest ; in a 
word, the rod should be perfectly 
balanced — and if you have the in- 
stincts of an angler your intuition 
will tell you. In this case the reel 
is too heavy for the rod. Try this," U II \ \ 

and Mr. Temple changed the solid 

silver reel to a small rubber affair, No. 5 4 3 2 1 

G F E D C 

and Tack and Tom took turns in ^.,, , , ,. 

•^ bilk enameled lines 

whisking it, pronouncing it perfect, showing exact sizes. 

perceiving that in this lesson was 

half the delight in angling. Then came the matter 

of lines, all being enameled silk, numbers C, D, E, F, 



236 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



G, the latter the smallest. For casting with bait C 
and D were employed, and for fly-fishing G and F 
were the favorites. They also had braided silk lines, 
but the Angler advocated the enameled line, as it never 
became water-soaked, rarely kinked, and slipped through 





:J 






u 



Fish hooks. 



the guides readily. Next came the fly-books, the leaders, 
and hooks — fascinating objects. The leaders were of 
gut, the silk of the silkwo'rm ; a long, translucent cord 
with their boxes — those used by the boys for fly-casting 



THE DELIGHT MAKERS 



237 



being six or seven feet long, dyed by soaking in green- 
tea water for twenty-four hours, making it almost in- 
visible when in the water. The hooks were those of 
well-known makes, as Carlisle, Sproat, Limerick, Kirby, 
Aberdeen. Then came the flies and their books ; and 
to see the Commodore exhibit an old buff-colored non- 
descript, which he called the None Such, named after 
the famous ship, with '-'■ three decks and no bottom," 
and hear him tell how he landed 
a six-pound bass with it when 
nothing else availed, was some- 
thing worth seeing and hearing. 
Li all this kit, as he termed it, 
simplicity was the rule. There 
were none of the fancy baits and 
lures, none of the thousand and 
one things which are to be had 
in the shops, only essentials, 
standard hooks, lines and reels, 
flies ; in fact, the outfit was 
" strictly business," as the old sailor said, who claimed 
that one could tell the bogus from the real angler by his 
outfit. 

The boys' fly-books had been formed on this prin- 
ciple. They contained about two or three dozen well- 
known flies, two or three of each, as White Miller, St. 
Patrick — the Commodore's favorite — Montreal, Seth 
Green, Coachman, Queen of the Waters, Grizzly King, 
Paramachenee Belle, Jock Scott, Brown Hackle, Ruben 




A good fly. 



238 



THE BOY ANGLERS 




Fish basket. 



Wood, Ferguson, Silver Doctor, Professor, John Mann, 
Brown Palmer, Bucktail, Scarlet Ibis, Jungle Cock, 
Beaver Kill, Baltimore, Yellow 
Sally, Governor Alvord, and sev- 
eral more. Both Tom and Jack 
knew how to make flies, and fre- 
quently on a wet day amused 
themselves by inventing flies, 
after a study of the various foods 
found in the stomachs of bass or 
trout. 
" There's only one way o' feeshin','' said the Com- 
modore, " an' that's with the fly. D'ye mind the old 
song — 

Up angler and off wi' each shackle. 

Up gad an' gafF an' avva' ! 
Cry hurra' for the canny red hackle. 
The hackle that's tackled them a'. 

" That means," explained 
the Commodore, " that the 
old red hackle is the killer, 
and so it is ; an' mony a wan 
I've made along the stream 
while the feesh were waitin'." 

All the tackle was con- 
tained in a box very similar 
to the salt-water box described, 
but now adapted to the requirements of fresh-water game. 
The coiled leaders had their special box ; the spoons for 




Felt-lined leader box. 



THE DELIGHT MAKERS 239 

pickerel and muskallunge were packed together. Then 
there were creels or baskets for trout, to be slung over 
the shoulder, and nets for bass and trout. The creels 
had broad straps, and a shorter one to prevent it from 
swinging out of place. The landing net, so essential for 
trout, was a foot across at the widest portion, and two 
feet deep, while the staff or handle was five feet long. 
There were small gafFs for salmon and muskallunge, and 
various smaller articles completing the outfit. The cos- 
tumes of the young anglers were adapted for the sport. 
For bass-fishing in boats they wore woolen shirts and 
knickerbockers, using sweaters when the weather was 
cool, and they were shod with rubber-soled canvas shoes. 
For trout-fishing, they had strong waterproof wading 
trousers, coming up to the armpits. The portion over 
the feet fitted smoothly, and over this were drawn heavy 
woolen stockings and thick, hobnailed shoes were worn. 
Such, in brief, was the equipment of the anglers, neither 
expensive nor particularly ornamental, but practical, and 
when in camp used with some variation. 

For several days the boys were engaged in fitting up 
their tackle, in walking about the attractive island, and 
sailing over the charming bays and channels of the river. 
Finally, one fine morning they started out on their first 
bass-fishing trip with two guides, Bill and Sam — delight 
makers, the Angler called them — who had lived all their 
lives on the river and knew every nook and corner of 
it. Their boats were typical St. Lawrence skiffs — long, 
slender, low, of beautiful lines, finished in natural woods, 



240 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



and so light that only a touch was necessary 
to send them along, yet so seaworthy that 
they were equal to any storm of the region. 
Tom and Jack occupied one, the Angler and 
the Commodore the other, the fishermen sit- 
ting behind each other in cane-seated chairs 
facing the stern, the oarsman behind them. 
Everything was trim and shipshape in these 
magic craft. Rugs covered the bottom, and 
the nickel work gleamed like silver. Under 
the boatman's seat was a drawer in which 
the fish were packed away when caught ; in 
brief, this fishing-boat devoted to black bass 
was as neat as possible. Amidships the men 
had minnow pails, and the hooks were baited 
by impaling the live two-and-a-half-inch 
minnow through the lips — a method which 
does not injure the bait or inflict much pain. 
Tom baited his hook 
with live minnow, 
while Jack used two 
baits on a leader — 
one a fly and the 
leader a minnow — |H \ % Cod hook 
and slacking out ||ll used as gaff. 

line they moved 
slowly up the bay, 
keeping about twen- 
ty feet from the 




Some fresh-water fishes. 



1 




The black bass. 



THE DELIGHT MAKERS 



243 



rocky shore. Entering a little bay, they passed into the 
rift, a narrow but deep channel not thirty feet wide, be- 
tween Murray and Westminster islands, then coming 
out into Eel Bay, a wide expanse of beautiful water sur- 
rounded by islands, its surface dotted with them here 
and there. 

Bill rowed out into the bay in the direction of a little 
rocky island hardly fifty feet across, and was carefully 
rowing around it 
when zeee-ee! sound- 
ed Tom's reel. A 
bending of the rod, a 
hiss of escaping line, 
a series of oh's, and 
then that splendid 
thing — a bass, high in 
air, clear of the water 
— shaking the spark- 
ling spray in every 
direction, to fall with 
a crash and make the 
reel cry and sing, all 
in a breath. A de- 
light-giver, indeed ! The mad runs, 
the swift coming in, the gallant plunge, 
the repeated leaps, the frantic rushes 
along the surface, the stubborn resist- 
ance, as though the energy and fierce- 
ness of all fishes had been combined in 
17 




Some knots 



244 THE BOY ANGLERS 

this one ! Tom had reeled in quickly to give Jack the 
field, and was a delighted observer of the tactics of this 
king of game fishes. How the rod bent and careened ! 
Now jerked deep into the water ; now straightened out. 
How the line cut the surface with a musical hissing 
sound ! What a wake it left behind it as it turned and 
challenged the rod, making it bow, nod, and caracole, 
while Tom's fingers flew off and on, his eyes bright and 
dancing following the marvelous fish, eying the rod-tip, 
breathing hard as the fish plunged into the warm, glad- 
some air, and was fanned for a second by the breeze, 
only to drop and plunge again. 

" Oh, but he's a jim dandy ! " whispered Jack. 
" How much do you think he'll weigh. Bill ? " 

" He ain't ketched yet," replied the philosophical 
boatman, refusing pointblank to count his chickens ; 
" but he's a corker," he conceded. 

He was a corker, no mistake, and he pulled the boat 
around with but little aid from Bill, who saw that the 
young angler was kept facing the bass. Landing a yel- 
lowtail, pumping him up and down, was heroic, a science ; 
but this was art, the aestheticism of angling, and Tom 
felt it, and deep in his heart wished his splendid fish 
might escape, so hearty was his appreciation of its gamy 
fight. But in it came, dashing from side to side, cir- 
cling in quick rushes, springmg into the air still, though 
with less and less spirit, yet never giving up or indica- 
ting that it was on the point of surrender. In it came on 
the relentless reel ; a final spring, a lightsome leap not 



246 THE BOY ANGLERS 

ten feet from the boat, a splendid rush, bending the 
whip-like line to the danger point, and the bass darted 
ahead and for a second poised over the net ; then in the 
midst of another rush came up, sparkling and gleaming, 
an Aphrodite of this inland sea. 

" A beauty ! " exclaimed Jack, turning to gaze at the 
fish, which the boatman cleverly despatched and held up. 
A beauty indeed ; the perfection of a small-mouth bass 
of large size, clipper built, rather long and slender, yet 
plump, a racer and fighter, according to Bill, from " way 
back " — that mysterious vale from which many strange 
things come, but never return. Bill slipped the scale- 
hook beneath the gills and held the fish up while the 
boys eagerly watched the jumping telltale on the face of 
the scale. " Five pounds six ounces," said Bill. " I 
guess you've gone and done it." 

" Done what ? " asked Jack. 

" Bruck the record," answered Bill, calmly. " I 
never knew a boy to ketch one that size before." At 
hearing this the young anglers waved their hats and 
cheered, upon which the Angler's boat with Sam came 
alongside, and the big bass was again held up for admira- 
tion. 

Hooks were rebaited and the boats were soon under 
way again. They had not proceeded far when Jack's 
reel sounded a dismal, croak-like groan and his rod 
bent. 

" Caught on the grass ! " he cried. " Back up a 
little. Bill." 



THE DELIGHT MAKERS 247 

Meantime the line was running out and Bill said sen- 
tentiously : " Maybe a pickerel, heaps of 'em here ; 
maybe grass." 

" If I can't tell pickerel from grass on the strike I 
don't want any pickerel," said Jack, laughing and reel- 
ing. " Here it comes, a fish, too ! " 

Something was protesting, making the rod bob, but 
it came in steadily, then made a single side rush which 




^ 



The pickerel. 



brought it fairly alongside, a goodly pickerel, gaping, 
blinking, with its gill covers wriggling a little at the net, 
coming in as complacently as possible. 

"And yet they say the pickerel is a game-fish," said 
Tom, laughing at the happy surrender of the fish, which 
was over two feet in length. 

" Some is game," retorted Bill, " and some jest seems 
to want to come in out o' the wet. About one in ten 
will make any kind of a play. I ain't got no use for 
'em, 'cepting in the fryin'-pan. Wait till we strike a 
maskinonge," he added; "there's a pickerel for you. 
Fight ? Well, my gracious ! " 



248 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



" Got him again ! " cried Tom, giving the butt of his 
slender rod to something that made several good rushes. 
" No bass this, no jump." 

" Rock bass," said Jack. " He'll give up before you 
can reel him in on the run." And a rock bass it was, 
in brown and yellow tints, shorter and thicker than the 
black bass. Bill reached for it with disgust and unhooked 
the pest, tossing it back. " Bait-eaters and no good," he 
growled. " If it wasn't for them things we'd have good 



//^t/<X , 




The rock bass. 



bass-fishing ; but they take the bait before the bass has 
a chance." 

Up the shore they went, Tom taking another pick- 
erel, which gave a fair exhibition of its game qualities ; 
then both anglers had strikes, and, after a rapid and ex- 
citing play, two splendid golden fishes were brought in. 

" Yellow perch ; they're the fish for fryin'," said Bill, 
taking them off^ and rebaiting the hooks. " We've 
struck a school of 'em." 



THE DELIGHT MAKERS 



249 



This proved to be true, and the boys cast from the 
boat and took eight or ten of the fish, all nine or ten 
inches in length and weighing a pound or more. Bill 
now made a turn out into the bay to some sunken rocks 




The yellow perch. 



he knew, and here both Tom and Jack picked up sev- 
eral black bass, one a large-mouth, the gamy fishes mak- 
ing a fine play, jumping high and low, arousing the boys' 
enthusiasm. 

" I tell you. Bill," said Tom, as the former netted a 
splendid bass, " if a big fish had the fight in him that 
a bass has, I mean in proportion to his size, no one could 
land him." 

" He'd be a reg'lar whale," said Bill. 

The boys fished up the bay, crossing the charming 
stretch of water, following along under rocky shores, 
breathing the incense of the forest, listening to the song 
of birds until noon, when Bill ran the boat into a little 



250 



THE BOY ANGLERS 




The landing net. 



bay on Grindstone Island, where they found the Angler, 
who had four or five bass laid out on the grass decorated 
with water-lilies as befitted the royal fish. The anglers 
compared catches while the boatmen cooked the dinner. 
From the brush limbs and planks were brought with 
which a table was made and 
upon which the fish dinner, for 
which the region has long been 
famous, was served in a short 
time. Mr. Temple sat at the 
head, the boys on either side, 
while the Commodore took the 
foot of the table, the boatmen 
serving them, and passing fried yellow perch and bass 
on long forks, fried potatoes, bacon, and coffee, so rich 
and fragrant that the Commodore affirmed that he saw 
pickerel bobbing up fifty feet offshore to get a sniff of 
it. After dinner, while the men were taking their turn, 
the Angler lighted his pipe and discoursed on fishes, 
quoting from Walton and others to prove the charm of 
angling. 

" It is difficult to decide which is the gamiest fish," 
he said. " When I am playing a ten-pounder I am sure 
it is it, and when I hooked a large bass this forenoon I 
was equally positive that it was the game of game. The 
black bass is the king, an interesting fish, and you find 
the large- and small-mouth varieties over a very wide 
area of country. The large-mouth ranges from the 
Great Lakes down into Florida, where it attains enor- 



THE DELIGHT MAKERS 251 

mous dimensions. The small-mouth has even a wider 
distribution and thrives nearly everywhere, having been 
planted all over the country. They are voracious, not 
particular as to food, eating flies, tadpoles, frogs, mice, 
crabs, in fact, almost anything, but preferring small fish, 
as minnows. They are very fanciful, crotchety. Some- 
times they will take anything ; again, you can not induce 
them to bite. I had a friend who tried them on every 
fly he possessed, and finally landed the largest fish with 
a bit of red flannel torn from his boatman's shirt. You 
will find a great difi^erence of opinion among anglers re- 
garding the two kinds. Some claim that the big-mouth 
is the gamiest fish, and vice versa. I merely give my 
opinion when I say that the small-mouth is the hardest 
fighter, and I venture to add that I can tell it long be- 
fore I see the fish. In my experience, the small-mouth 
bass never gives up. The big-mouth fights quite as well 
for a time, but fails very soon and comes in beaten, not 
defiant. The two fish are frequently found together, 
but they have different fancies. The small-mouth affects 
rocky shoals in water of varying depth, and is a rock 
lover, though you often see it in the grass. But the 
big-mouth is like the pickerel ; he loves the weeds and 
muddy bottom, while the small-mouth makes its so-called 
nest in the mud among the weeds. In winter they both 
take to deeper water. As the name indicates, one has a 
small mouth, the other a larger one ; but there are other 
points of difference. If you compare them, side by side, 
you will see that the end of the upper jaw in the large- 



252 THE BOY ANGLERS 

mouth bass is back of the eye, while in the small-mouth 
bass it is directly beneath it. Then the scales in the 
large-mouth are much larger than in the small-mouth, 
and they have differences of color which you can rarely 
fail to notice. 

" The small-mouth bass," continued the Angler, 
" has, as you see, a golden greenish cast on back and 
sides and no lateral line, while the large-mouth is much 
darker. His back is greenish black, his sides silvery 
and greenish and with a decided black band on the side. 
But both fishes vary greatly in color at times. As to 
weight, the large-mouth is ahead. Specimens have been 
taken in the South which weighed from eight to twenty- 
one pounds, but in the North they rarely run over five 
or six pounds. Over at Kingston you will find some 
splendid specimens. The small-mouth averages but 
three pounds, the largest known is not much over twelve 
or thirteen pounds." 

After dinner, Tom and Jack amused themselves by 
casting from the beach or rocks, landing several sunfish, 
a sucker, and many rock bass, 
and finally a black bass. Then 
the four anglers extemporized a 
casting tournament, the boatmen 
■' anchoring some floats at different 

^, , , distances from the shore, the 

The bass leaps. 

anglers casting for distance and 

accuracy with fly and bait, affording a fine exhibition 

of this art of the angler. Surely no more graceful 




THE DELIGHT MAKERS 253 

pastime exists. Jack held his hght rod in his right 
hand, unreeling the line with his left, and with a deft 
motion of the wrist sent his bait just where he wished 
it, and amid the laughter of the others invariably hook- 
ing a provoking sunfish. 

" You remember even Hiawatha objected to the 
sunfish," said the Angler : 

Slowly upward, wavering, gleaming 
Rose the Ugudwash, the Sunfish ; 
Seized the line of Hiawatha, 
Swung with all his weight upon it. 

But when Hiawatha saw him 
Slowly rising through the water. 
Lifting up his disc refulgent. 
Loud he shouted in derision : 
** Esa ! esa ! shame upon you. 
You are Ugudwash, the Sunfish ; 
You are not the fish I wanted ; 
You are not the King of Fishes." 

" Casting is all in the wrist movement," continued 
Mr. Temple, giving several fancy casts ; now flipping 
the fly, then casting underhand, again over. 



Spinner and minnow. 

" I think the most diflicult thing to learn," said 
Tom, " at least for me, was to wait until my line was 




1 



I ~ 



THE DELIGHT MAKERS 255 

perfectly straight on the back cast before I made the 
forward cast, and as a result I generally flipped off the 
flies." 

" That comes by practise and then by intuition," re- 
plied his father. 

It was the middle of the afternoon when the Angler 
left this charming spot and the boats turned toward 
home, some of the party casting in the nooks and 
corners as they passed along, others trolling with spin- 
ners and having fishermen's luck in fine catches, which, 
as the sun sank and the May flies filled the air and the 
whippoorwill's note sounded, were spread out on the 
grass that leads up to the cottage among the trees. 



CHAPTER XV 

TAKING THE MUSKALLUNGE 

While the anglers were enjoying the delights of 
the Thousand Islands, they fished nearly every day for 
a fish that did not come. When Jack trolled for bass, 
Tom almost invariably had a heavier rod with a big 
spoon or spinner out ; and when Tom trolled for bass, 
Jack handled the big spinner, and stronger and stronger 
grew the desire to take that king of the pickerel tribe, 
the muskallunge. One day while sailing down the river, 
a boatman appeared at the dock and held up a splendid 
specimen, fairly taunting them with its size and beau- 
ties ; and on a neighboring island an astute angler had 
the heads of three or four hung on his walls, telling of 
his prowess and good luck. In all his experience the 
Angler had taken but one muskallunge, so small a fish 
that it did not count, and all were keenly alive to the 
possibilities — somewhere there was a large fish awaiting 
them. Every week one or more was caught, some- 
where on the great river, hence all there was to do was 
to fish and persevere ; so it came about that each day 
some one of the angling party fished for the elusive and 
256 



TAKING THE MUSKALLUNGE 257 




Spoon or spinner 
ready for use. 



rare muskallunge. The boys tried all kinds of spin- 
ners, spoons of new design which Bill or Sam altered 
over, adding new attractions in red and 
gold. They tried fall fish, creek chub, 
rock bass, and big yellow perch — in 
fact, every bait that had ever been 
heard of, on or about the St. Law- 
rence, or wherever the word muskal- 
lunge was known. They fished early 
and late, day and night, but the big 
pike passed them by and the sole catch 
was innumerable pickerel ranging from 
two to seven pounds, which while good 
for the larder were unsatisfactory to 
the exacting anglers. 

In this way the days rolled and melted away. They 
had delightful trips and good sport with the bass, perch, 
wall-eyed pike, and others, and daily the boys learned 
more and more about the muskallunge, the fish with the 
endless names, every angler they met calling it by a dif- 
ferent name. The Angler held for muskallunge. The 
Commodore thought jackfish was the correct name, while 
Bill, the boatman, contended for maskinonge, and Sam 
said it should be mascalonge, as Dr. Henshall told him 
so, which was a very good reason the boys thought. 
Every day was a fishing day, and there was always the 
hope that the big fish would be found. Just at the south 
end of the island, where the channel extended through to 
Eel Bay, was a place which Bill stated was famous for 



258 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



muskallunge. When pressed, his reason was that the 
conditions were right : th« grass was long and afforded 
good cover, and the channel was deep, so that the big 
fish could lurk on its edge and pounce like a tiger upon 




Spoons of various sizes. 



small fry. And so it happened that when the boys went 
fishing they usually rowed up this channel and drifted 
along the weeds, generally catching pickerel, an occa- 
sional wall-eyed pike in deep water, and other game. 



TAKING THE MUSKALLUNGE 259 

It was a region of delights. The well-wooded island, 
the air filled with the aroma of pine, the masses of wild 
rose growing down to the water's edge, all gave it a pe- 
culiar charm. 

One day Tom and Jack were rowing slowly up 
the channel. Bill had stopped a moment to light his 
pipe, and Jack had just expressed the opinion that his 
big sucker would foul the grass when something hap- 
pened. The sucker, a one-pound fish, gleaming so that 
it could be seen easily fifty feet astern, stopped violently, 
and all the blood seemed to rush into Jack's head as his 
reel sounded a warning note. 

" Eh ! " said Bill, starting. 

" Strike .? " whispered Tom, beginning to reel in his 
minnow. 

" I think so," replied Jack, visibly excited. " It 
couldn't be grass." 

" Don't strike yet," suggested Bill. '' You've got a 
corker of a bait and it's a maskinonge " 

" Zeee-zeee-zeee-zeee ! " 

" Great Scott ! zeeee ! — a musky, by gingo ! " 

" Look out, let him go ! " cried Tom. " Ain't he a 
dandy r Oh, Jack, Jack, JACK ! " 

Tseee-tseee ! Jack had struck his fish and hooked 
him, and was losing line at the rate of a yard a 
second. 

"Grass? not much," cried Bill, backing the boat 

around with furious strokes. " We're the people, don't 

you forget it. That's it," and more from three wildly 
18 



26o THE BOY ANGLERS 

excited men who rapidly became cool, determined to 
make no mistake or lose the game by an error of 
theirs. 

" Slam it to him ! whew ! " cried Bill. 

Zeee-zeee ! and the gallant fish made a rush so vi- 
cious and powerful that Bill said later he saw a streak of 
fire and a pufF of smoke rise from the reel. The tackle 
was so light that the splendid fish had it all its own way, 
and the fight it made was that struggle known only to 
anglers who have taken the fish. The muskallunge had 
sprung like a tiger out into the deeper water of the chan- 
nel, and Jack's reel was nodding and bending in several 
directions at once, the fish rising to the surface a long 
way off and fairly lashing the water into foam in its 
efforts to escape, then plunging down out of sight, mak- 
ing the reel scream and scream again. Bill propelled 
his boat astern first after the fish to save the line, while 
Jack reeled and broke and gave line and reeled again, all 
with such rapidity that it was bewildering to the looker- 
on, yet not a mistake did he make ; his hands, fingers, 
and muscles had been trained on larger game and game 
quite as fast. The big fish brought him new experience 
and sensations, and was well calculated to demoralize a 
cool hand ; even Bill could not restrain his admiration, 
and in his excitement gave Jack high praise in strange 
and laughable words. Jack played the muskallunge fif- 
teen minutes before it showed any signs of giving in. It 
rushed around in a circle, plunged deep into the channel, 
rising to turn and face the angler and shake its head 



TAKING THE MUSKALLUNGE 261 

viciously, then came rushing in to turn and make the 
welkin ring to the buzzing of the reel, the burr of the 
thumb brake on the line, and the hard breathing of the 
angler. Time and again it had the tip almost under 
water in several rushes ; more than once its cunning and 
sudden plunges in made the anglers think that it was off, 
but as the moments stole away Jack played a telling 
game and the big fish came in ; now dashing about in cir- 
cles, yet always decreasing; now beneath the boat, again 
far away, but always coming in. Suddenly it made a 
plunge at them. Jack secured the slack and held it, and 
for the first time saw the splendid shape of the fish, its 
black tiger-like spots on the silver background, its ugly jaw 
and ponderous head. 

" Ready, Bill," said Jack, in a low tone as the fish 
was caught in a rush and held, and with bending rod 
swam around the stern. 

" Aye, sir. Let him come, let him come," and Jack, 
holding up his rod with fingers on the reel, brought the 
fish on the quarter. Out stole the gaff, deep into its 
throat went the sharp steel, and above the water appeared 
the monster head. Surrender ? Not he. All the fight 
of ten thousand pickerel seemed boiled down, concen- 
trated in this great cousin german, swinging its powerful 
tail wildly, tossing the silvery drops into the sunlight, 
shaking the very boat, and opening its fierce jaws, snap- 
ping like a wolf. Bill made secure his footing, then 
raised the fish and cleverly brought it in, still more clev- 
erly despatching it with his fish-club, then held it up. 



262 THE BOY ANGLERS 

vibrating and quivering, to the admiring gaze of the 
young anglers. 

" Ain't he a dandy ? " cried Jack, enthusiastically, 
realizing the utter hopelessness of expressing his real ap- 
preciation of such a fish. Other fishes may have been 
" peaches '* and " Jim dandies," but a new word would 
certainly have to be invented to adequately describe this 
muskallunge, which two hours later weighed thirty-six 
pounds. ^' Run up the flag," said Jack, as soon as the 
fish was safe in the canvas, and up went a white flag at 
the top of the sprit ; then they bore away for home. Bill 
pulling a strong stroke, sending the skifF over the water 
like a bird, laughing, talking in high humor. Every boat 
they passed gave them a cheer and came alongside to see 
the fish, which Bill proudly exhibited. As one of the large 
river steamers went by Bill held up the muskallunge, 
at sight of which the passengers cheered loudly, and 
when they finally reached home they found a crowd 
gathered to view the king of the river fishes. The prize 
was quickly laid upon the grass and admired, measured, 
photographed and weighed. Reporters interviewed Jack 
and Bill, and the story lost nothing in the telling, you 
may be sure of that ; indeed. Jack was amazed when he 
read the account in the local paper the next day. Yet 
there was the fish to prove the story. The only disap- 
pointment came in the notice to the eiFect that "while 
it was a fine catch, it had been beaten by a fourteen-year- 
old boy, son of Mr. F. L. Wanklyn, of Montreal, who, 
unaided, brought a thirty-seven pounder to gafF near the 



TAKING THE MUSKALLUNGE 263 

Isle Perrot in 1903." The latter fish made a desperate 
fight, nearly upsetting the boat, breaking away from the 
gaff, and resisting capture with great vigor. This, in 
the absence of other information, may be considered the 
boys' record for muskallunge. 




The muskallunge and pike compared. 



That night the catch was duly discussed by the 
anglers and compared with pike and pickerel, the boys 
learning to distinguish them. In shape the fish are very 
much alike, all changing according to the color of the 
bottom ; but while there are many points of resemblance, 
no one can mistake the pickerel for the splendid mus- 
kallunge. The latter has leopard-like spots of black 
and brown merging into distinct blotches, giving the fish 
a distinctive appearance. But if there was any doubt 
about distinguishing the muskallunge from the other 
fish, it would be easily settled by a glance at the head. 



264 THE BOY ANGLERS 

In the pickerel and pike, the " cheek " or gill covers 
are covered with scales ; in the muskallunge, there is 
but a narrow line of scales on the top of the cheek. It 
was agreed that this member of the tribe made up for 
the shortcomings of the pike and pickerel. The mus- 
kallunge is a rare fish, even in the waters that know it 
best, and its capture to-day on the St. Lawrence or in 
the northern lakes of Michigan does not fail to create a 
sensation. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE OUANANICHE 

A WEEK after the capture of the muskallunge, the 
anglers went down the river, passed the famous Rapids 
and Montreal on to Quebec and the splendid falls of 
Montmorency, then taking the Saguenay steamer and 
sailing down the river of rivers, the St. Lawrence, which 
widens out into a sea. Here the Laurentian Mountains 
come down to its edge colored with purple, the splendid 
tint moving on in elusive shadows, leading one on to 
the great angling country of northeastern Canada, the 
home of the trout, salmon and ouananiche. Up the 
deep and solemn Saguenay they sailed, passing titanic 
rocks which overhung the steamer, reaching Chicoutomi, 
the head of navigation, early one fine morning. From 
here the party went by train to Lake St. John, reaching 
their camp one afternoon, which Mr. Temple had ar- 
ranged for in advance, preferring this to the more civil- 
ized methods. The boys were delighted to find a regu- 
lar bark camp, the sleeping place entirely open on one 
side, the dining-room without a roof. Their beds — 
canvas bags — were rigged on long poles, supported by 

265 



THE OUANANICHE 



267 



crotched sticks and filled with balsam boughs. Several 
Indians served as guides, and their picturesque canoes 
were hauled on the beach hard by, while over a blazing 




The bed. 



fii'e hung pails and cooking appliances in camping 
fashion. In a word, the boys had left civilization, as it 
were, behind. They had long since noticed that their 
father was an enthusiast on angling. When fishing for 
yellowtail this was the "game of game," as he had said. 
When in the "ten-pounder" country, he considered it 
was the king of game fishes ; and now in the land Oi 
the ouananiche, he told Tom and Jack to be prepared 
" for the fishing of their lives " — they were in the coun- 
try of the rod and line smashers. 

The first evening was spent in talking over the won- 
ders of the region, its history, tales of the Decharge, the 
Vache Caille Rapid, and the big game taken in years 
gone by ; then a night's sleep in the purest of air. 
Lake St. John is a charming body of water about twenty- 



268 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



five miles long and twenty wide, shallow and fed by 
hundreds of streams, lakes and rivers. It is the head 
waters of the deep dark Saguenay, the waters finding 




■* Supper." 



their way to it by La Decharge du Lac, the region 
abounding in many picturesque and beautiful angling 
stations, rocks and pools. 

The anglers started early in the morning for their 
first fishing trip, each in a canoe — in itself a thing of 
beauty — the Angler in the center and an Indian paddler 
in bow and stern, who talked in Canadian French and 
laughed in pure English. The tackle, which the Angler 
had indicated, was eight-ounce split bamboo trout rods 
for Tom and Jack, he himself using a six-ounce rod, 
and about one hundred and fifty feet of enameled silk line. 
Each six-foot leader had a single bright-colored fly, con- 
cealing a number five hook. Swiftly the Indians car- 
ried them on, no fishing being done until they reached 
a certain pool at the foot of a tumultuous fall, where 



270 THE BOY ANGLERS 

the water — a mass of roaring, seething silver — discharged 
itself. Here was the natural home of the ouananiche. 
The canoes were well together, and the boys were first 
to cast, allowing the fly to sink a ftw inches, disappear- 
ing in the foaming waters to be jerked several times. 
The Indians held the canoe as close to the rough water 
as possible ; and suddenly as Tom dropped his resplen- 
dent fly, and as the line straightened out, something 
went into the air and — well, that was the end, Tom 
staring at the dangling line and two Indians laughing at 
his dismay. " Cut, eat off with hees tail," said one. 
Jack had better luck. The strike came and he held his 
fish to the measure of the singing reel and dancing rod, 
hooked him, and then began that high and lofty tumbling 
for which the fish is famed. It dashed into the air at 
least two feet, then rushed directly at the boat, then, as 
Jack later said, " banged and hammered at the line," 
then plunged down to rise and fly into the air in a 
splendid leap — all so quickly that many an experienced 
angler has gone down — rod and line — before it to total 
ruin. But good luck more than anything else was with 
the angler, though perhaps certain experience with ten- 
pounders had equipped him for conclusions with the 
ouananiche. In any event. Jack played the fish success- 
fully, the gallant creature putting him to his very wits' 
end as it darted about — now far away, now dashing 
around beneath the boat, and only straightened out by 
the vigorous work of the guides ; again leaping almost 
alongside, a thing of beauty, a joy forever. Jack thought 




fc 



'^^.'' 






THE OUANANICHE 273 

he counted over ten leaps in about ten minutes, and yet 
he could not claim any serious advantage — the fish was 
fighting still. In about twenty minutes, however, the 
gamy creature was lifted in by the man with the net 
— only a three-pounder, but three pounds of virility and 
fire. 

Tom had also hooked a fish and was playing it, 
while the Angler, with his light rod, was putting to con- 
fusion some anglers on the rocks near by, who were 
fishing with stiff ten-ounce rods. It was a fishing day, 
and a fine catch was made in a short time, after which 
they went ashore for lunch, later fishing from the rocks 
at the various points ir; this region famous for ouana- 
niche.* Mr. Temple displayed five of these fishes, one 
of six pounds, and as they were spread out on the rocks 
to the boys, they were small salmon, and their father 
said they were merely landlocked salmon, Salmo ouana- 
niche ; indeed, the Montagnias Indian guides said it was 
a " little salmon " that never went down to the sea. 
The best authorities state that the ouananiche is a differ- 
ent species from the sabago or Atlantic salmon. 

♦ Pronounced Win-a-nish. 



CHAPTER XVII 

WITH THE PACIFIC COAST TROUT 

A YEAR drifted away into the past, and another 
angling and vacation season was at hand, and found Mr. 
Temple and his boys working up the coast. The fish- 
ing now was all with the supple six- and eight-ounce 
ten-foot split bamboo, noibwood and greenheart rods, 
plain single action reels — reels with which the Angler 
did all the work — fine silk enameled lines of the " E 
persuasion," as the Commodore said, leaders eight or 
ten feet long — no " foggy," " bleary " leaders here, but 
those clear as glass, upon which the dainty flies were 
fastened with as many knots as there were anglers. In- 
deed, the outfit for this angling along the streams and 
rivers of California was a most attractive feature. In 
April they visited the Santa Ynez River, near the village 
of Lompoc, above Santa Barbara, where they made 
splendid catches of " steelheads " — a large rainbow trout. 
Later, the anglers camped on one of the many beautiful 
trout streams which reach the Pacific in central Cali- 
fornia. Its waters were icy cool, clear as crystal, and 
its flashes of color, its flecks of snow-white foam were 
274 



WITH THE PACIFIC COAST TROUT 275 

suggestive of glaciers in the highlands, that were disap- 
pearing under the summer sun. The stream came from 
a deep-wooded canon in the range, bounding into the open 
like a living thing. Now it dashed merrily over 
smooth pebbles, beneath trailing willows, toying 
with the leaves and piling in foaming masses over I/J 




Head of rainbow trout {Sal mo irideus) with gill cover turned 
back to show the breathing organs. 



the great rocks ; now it was burdened with verdure — pine 
cones from the uplands, or leaves from the fragrant bay 
— while ever and anon great limbs and branches of trees 
came sw^eeping down to lodge in the boulders and ob- 
struct the plunging waters. The stream had its moods 
and fancies — of that the boys were certain. They first 
knew it in the deep cailon, where it rushed among big 
rocks and leaped over moss-covered precipices, a musi- 
cal, exultant thing. Now it was deep in the gloom of 
great sycamores, foaming capriciously out into the warm 

sunshine that here flooded the canon. For some dis- 
19 



276 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



tance it flowed quickly over gravel beds, hurrying around 

little islands of stranded brush, but soon cut its way into 

the mesa, where it broadened 



» f'~'i4i|,f 




II I) 



and developed, and amid green 
fields and nodding flowers flowed 
silently on to the distant sea. 

For miles this stream, which 
the boys followed ^ 

from the mountain 
down, ran silently ; 
then it darted be- 
neath the cotton- 
woods and away into a broad laguna, where 
cattails flourished and the blackbird reigned 
supreme. The boys took their first fish 
among the big trees that covered the range. 
There deep pools were frequent at the base 
of huge boulders, and creeping up to one 
and glancing through the ferns that formed 
a barrier, Tom saw a trout of heroic pro- 
portions dimly outlined against the bottom. 
A rift of sunlight poured down through the 
sycamores, illumining a spot ten or more 
inches in length, and in this the giant lay, 
taking a veritable sun bath. The question 
was, what would it take ? Tom had been 
using worms and a speckled fly with some 
success, but it occurred to him that this magnificent 
fellow might be capricious. His game was diff^erent 



The string. 



WITH THE PACIFIC COAST TROUT 277 

from the fish of the lowlands, where sun-burned grass- 
hoppers missed their objective blades of grass upon the 
bank, and went sprawling into the stream to be snapped 
up. The trout of the deep pools and woods depended 
more upon flies, or the speckled black-and-white tree 
toads, perhaps, which crouched upon the rocks of the 
stream, mimicking them in tone and color. Tom had a 
peacock-blue fly (a St. Patrick), and this he managed to 
land a foot or more in front of the fish — a dainty, de- 
licious object it was, a delight to the eye j and as it rose 
and attempted to fly away at the bidding of the tip of 
the split bamboo, there were few trout that would have 
refused it. The monarch of the pool, however, was 
not to be tempted. A ^ew inches forward it moved, 
rising slowlv, then sank back, gently vibrating tail and 
fins, eying the fly with evident scorn. 

'' That trout must be caught," said Tom, " but 
how ? " He tried a lighter fly, then a brown speckled 
beauty, and finally in desperation put on a frog — one of 
the little tree or rock varieties that were jumping about 
the rocks. A blaze of light, a quick, sharp, splashing 
report told that this was indeed the lure to its taste. 
The pool was not over ten feet in width, and formed an 
artificial basin, leading by a gentle fall to the stream be- 
low. The first rush took the line beneath the ledge, 
where the fish had doubtless lived for seasons undis- 
turbed. Then out it came, and failing to rid itself 
of the torturing hook, took a magnificent leap over the 
falls to the music of the reel. How it sang, and how 



278 THE BOY ANGLERS 

nobly the great creature tried every maneuver known 
to the gamy tribe ! That the line was not cut a score 
of times was something of a miracle, but Tom followed 
down stream, and finally landed the beauty among the 
brakes and ferns of the bank — the "bonniest fish," as 
the Commodore said, ever taken from these waters, he 
was sure ! but then the old man thought 
every fish was the best ! 

Fishing here could not be compared 
to like sport in the East. The moun- 
tain streams are often difficult to follow, 
and the fisherman must lower himself 
from rock to rock ; now finding pools 
six or eight feet deep, and anon walking 
over rocks that form the stepping-stones 
of a shallow, and beneath trees and 
shrubs that made a releaser a necessity. 
How the trout obtain a footing in some 
of these high basins was a mystery to 
the boys. In some streams they are 
found in pools that are entirely isolated 

from the stream, so far as fish migration 

The releaser, for . j j .u 1 1 ..• 

, , IS concerned, and the only explanation 

cutting branches. ' ■' ^ 

the Angler gave was that the trout have 
forced their way up during floods, when a great mass of 
water was pouring down, forming a continuous stream. 
"These streams," he said, during one of the evening 
talks around the camp-fire, for the evenings were still 
chilly, " are not always the quiet ones they appear, and 




28o THE BOY ANGLERS 

what astonishes me is that the fish are not entirely washed 
out. Some years ago I was making the trip over the 
mountains in winter, when I was caught in a rain-storm 
and camped not far from here. I thought I would be 
safe on a boulder, but during the night I was aroused by 
a terrific roaring sound, and found that the water was 
rising, and that the entire caiion had been transformed 
into a wild torrent. Fortunately there grew a large syca- 
more by the rock, which I reached by some wild grape- 
vines, gaining an upper limb, and that was my camp for 
nearly twenty-four hours. By actual measurement the 
water rose ten feet above the rock." 

The anglers fished this mountain stream from end to 
end, later finding their way into the picturesque county 
of Marin that reaches from the Golden Gate north along- 
shore for miles, a region suggestive of trout streams and 
wild game. The county has Tamalpais as a landmark, 
an isolated mountain peak whose shadow darkens the 
waters of the Golden Gate, and from whose sides burst 
springs and rivulets which make up many trout streams 
in Marin. The anglers entered this country up to the 
north by Cazadero, and worked their way down the 
summer streams by easy stages, literally a horseback 
fishing party, making the long stretches by this means, 
sleeping beneath the redwoods in the sweetest, purest air. 
Around Cazadero there are many trout streams which 
flow gently through a charming region. There were the 
redwoods in all their glory, still untouched by the vandal 
woodchopper, and among the giants winds one of the best 



WITH THE PACIFIC COAST TROUT 281 

streams for trout in the vicinity. Mr. Temple suggested 
that they fasten their horses and take to the stream, and 
presently the party were wading down the stream that 
forces its way into the very heart of the forest. The 




Brown trout. 

water was like crystal, and young trout dashed here and 
there at every step, while their larger fellows could be 
seen in the rift, inviting conclusions with the fly. 

Standing knee-deep in an open spot where the sun- 
light poured in, Tom cast his first fly in a gentle riffle 




Lake trout. 

down stream. A gleam of silver and gold, a dash and 
the melody of the reel, told of noble game. Away it 
rushed down a little fall, shaking golden spray all about 



282 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



In a desperate effort at freedom, falling back to come up 
stream faster than Tom could reel, then turning, catch- 
ing a glimpse of the excited angler, only to dart away 
again. Far down stream it ran, now hiding beneath 
the combing banks, then out into the sunlight, fighting 
hard for life, only to finally come in game to the very 
last, a splendid fish, which Jack photographed to send 
home. 

Wading down stream the anglers obtained more than 
the enjoyment of landing gamy trout. They passed 




Brook trout. 



through fertile valleys with high mountains on either side ; 
the outer Coast Range to the west formed the great bar- 
rier over which rifts of fog came, gleaming like patches 
of molten silver, to be broken or dissipated by the warm 
air rising from the valley. Here the stream crept through 
deep underbrush, and suddenly seemed to stop as a giant 
fallen redwood barred the way, the latter illustrating the 
peculiar growth of these trees, as from the trunk num- 



WITH THE PACIFIC COAST TROUT 283 

bers of trees were growing, forming a little redwood 
fence, beneath which many a trout lurked and tempted 
the anglers to inglorious ventures. Not far below a tree 
had bridged the stream at a famous fishing pouit, and 
Tom, Jack and the Angler all cast flies from this van- 
tage point with fair results. The stream here wound 
down a deep caiion or valley from which rose lofty hills 
clothed with pines and redwoods, so old and tall that 
even fierce fires that had swept over the country had not 
affected them. Standing among these giants of the forest, 




A vista in the trout stream. 



284 THE BOY ANGLERS 

their tops seemed lost in the blue sky above, while their 
bases were buried deep in masses of fern and moss, the 
accumulation of centuries. Suddenly the boys, who 
were ahead, came to a leafy barrier, and saw beyond an 
open space into which the sun poured, illumining a sandy 
little beach with a flood of light in strong contrast to 
where they stood. There was absolute silence, except 
the occasional hoarse cry of a blue shrike as it dived 
down into the green abyss from above, or the love note 
of the plumed quail that came gently on the breeze. As 
Tom and Jack stood silently enjoying the scene, there 
came a soft crunch upon the gravel, and out from the 
brush stepped a black-tail deer, a noble fellow, with a 
fine pair of antlers. He stopped a moment, raised his 
lustrous eyes to the hillsides, expanded his nostrils, then 
walked boldly into the stream and drank the clear water, 
so near the boys that had it not been for the verdure 
they could have dropped a fly fairly upon his back. 
Not a suspicion had he, and, after drinking his fill, he 
waded into the stream, spoiling the fishing by cooling his 
hoofs along the shallows until the deep underbrush swal- 
lowed him up. 

From this trout stream Mr. Temple and the boys 
climbed the range and looked down upon Bolinas, with 
Its bay and long stretch of sandy beach — the blue ocean 
on one hand and the eternal green of the redwood forest 
on the other. Here a fittle inn crowned the summit, 
where good refreshments for man and beast were found, 
and about which grand scenery greeted the eye. The 



WITH THE PACIFIC COAST TROUT 285 

place was so restful that the Angler proposed that they 
tarry several days. " What with the natural trout and 
those introduced," he said one evening, when Tom and 
Jack had been discussing the trout of the different locali- 
ties they had visited in the East, '' we Californians are 
fortunate. We have all kinds : the steelhead, the Yel- 
lowstone, the big Lake Tahoe silver trout, the spotted 
trout, the blue back, the speckled trout, and then the 
rainbow trout and its variations in Kern, the McCloud, 
the Nissuee, and the golden trout of Mount Whitney. 
I hope we can some time try them all and compare their 
game qualities." 

" It takes a lot of skill and finesse to make a good 
trout fisherman, I think," said Jack. " I fished a stream 
the other day with the Commodore, and he beat me ex- 
actly six to one." 

" It is in the casting," said his father. '' By the 
time you are seventy you may be able to cast with 
Robert." 

" But then," replied Jack, " he will by that time 
have gained a lot more experience." 

" Aye," responded the Commodore. " I took the 
most feesh on account of the under castin' in the brook. 
But you, Mr. Jack, were born under the sign of the 
feesh, born to good luck. Your feesh weighed more 
than all mine together. Castin' is all in the wrist, and 
there's a lot in it. You find the man who feeshes up a 
stream is generally a poor hand at the cast. I'm not so 
set in my ways that I can not give in to others. I know 



286 THE BOY ANGLERS 

old fishermen who think it an unpardonable sin to 
take a trout with a worm. I'm not so sure that it 
is not my advice to stand by the fly as much as 
possible as being the fairest and most scientific way of 
fishing." 

" That is so, Robert," said the Angler, smiling. 
" Your average trout does not see a bunch of angle- 
worms come floating down stream every day ; worms 




The ducks were flying south. 

don't go to sea, as a rule, and few trout can resist such 
a lure. It is a sure thing, it is deadly ; but the fly 
dropped gently in the water is an invitation they know 
all about, and fair play." 

" What time are we off^ to-morrow ? " asked Jack, 
as his father rose. 



WITH THE PACIFIC COAST TROUl^ 287 

*< The glad trout is roaming in every clear stream. 

And the grilse and the salmon now drink the May flood. 
Then anglers be up with the sun's early beam. 
Let your flies be trim and your tackle be good," 

quoted the Angler, " which means early breakfast — 
broiled venison and fried trout — something to look for- 
ward to." 

The fishing party leisurely moved on into the upper 
country, whipping many of the streams from Lake Lagu- 
nitas, at the foot of Tamalpais, up into Oregon, where 
they fished the Clackamas and other streams, finding 
new enjoyments in the forests and streams of the north, 
where they camped, fishing and hunting until long after 
the ducks were flying southward. 



CHAPTER XVIII 



SALMON FISHING 



A COOL month of July on the Pacific coast found 
the anglers near Monterey. They fished the various 
streams which flowed into the ocean near here, wander- 







"^^i— 










^m 




'/^Bm 


m 


LJ 



Where the Monterey salmon gather. 



ng up and down the attractive rock-bound shores, boat- 
ng in Carmel and the bay of Monterey ; then, in response 

288 



SALMON FISHING 



289 



to a telegram from a Santa Cruz boatman, went to that 
picturesque town near the giant redwoods to find that a 
large school of salmon had entered the bay, anglers from 
the surrounding country coming from far and near for 




Atlantic salmon. 

the sport, the yearly incoming of these splendid fish being 
one of the events. The tackle was entirely different 
from that used on the Restigouche and other salmon 
streams of Canada. Here the fish was in the ocean, and 




^ 




Pacific salmon. 



could plunge down so deep that a long, slender bamboo 
rod would be useless. The boats were rigged like those 
of Santa Catalina, and the tackle identical with that 
employed for yellowtail. 



290 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



The morning they pushed out from shore there were 
ten or fifteen boats in Santa Cruz Bay, all in search of 
salmon. Some contained professional fishermen, others 
anglers, and all were rowing slowly up and down, trolling 
with sixty or seventy feet of line out, using a light sinker 
to take the line down, as the salmon were supposed to 
be lying deep beneath schools of sardines. The bait was 
a smelt four inches in length, baited through the mouth 
and up through the body, as in yellowtail fishing. The 
Angler and Tom were in one boat. Jack and the Com- 
modore in another, and to be sociable they kept together, 
the boats being one hundred and fifty feet or so apart. 
Several anglers had had strikes, but no fish had been 
taken. The boys were speculating upon the chances 
when Jack's voice was heard. 

"Oh, ho, the gallant anglers that we are ! " and the 
others saw him straighten back, his rod bending, the line 
firm as a line of steel, then the choked-ofF buzz of the 
reel rose on the air, and Jack had hooked his first salmon. 
Here was game not unlike the yellowtail rushing away 
at a speed that carried two hundred feet of line whirling 
from the reel ; then he stopped it, and the salmon plunged 
to the bottom, and once there, or as near as it could get, 
it ran in a few feet, then stopped and struck the angler 
through the line a series of vigorous blows, then ap- 
peared to shake its head, a maneuver that was altogether 
new in Jack's experience. Another reel sounded, and 
Tom had a fish, and with the zeee ! of the reels and the 
shouts of laughter, it was merry fishing. Jack's fish now 




20 



292 



THE BOY ANGLERS 



rose to the surface, encouraged by some judicious jump- 
ing, and essayed to leap, but did not clear the water, 
seemingly rolling over and lashing it with its tail, making 
a fine display for a few seconds, then plunging into the 
blue water, making everything, as the Commodore said, 
" creak and groan." Then the fish gradually rose, bend- 
ing the stiff rod, making it thrill with the extreme ten- 




Curved jaw of male salmon at spawning time. 

sion, coming higher and higher; then the line parted 
and Jack sat, dismay pictured on his face. " How do 
you account for that ? " he asked, reeling in. 

" Flaw in the line, perhaps," answered the boatman ; 
" but more likely another fish crossed it aslant and sawed 
it off." 

This, doubtless, was the explanation, as the line was 
cut as smooth as though a knife had been used. In the 



SALMON FISHING 293 

meantime Tom had brought his fish to gaff, his boatman 
gaffing it in fine style, a splendid fish, weighing thirty 
pounds. In a few moments Jack, with fresh hook and 
bait, hooked another, which he brought to the boat in 
twelve minutes. And so they fished until noon, taking 
half a dozen or so fish each, for which there was a ready 
market. 

Several weeks later saw the anglers encamped on 
Vancouver's Island, where they enjoyed the same sport, 
though with larger fish, taking them all with bait or 
spoons ; but, though they made the attempt, they failed 
completely to induce the Pacific salmon to take a fly in 
the rivers, where they were found in large quantities. 
In the course of their travels a small stream was discov- 
ered in which the salmon were so packed that it was al- 
most possible to form a bridge over their backs, which 
protruded from the water. 

" It is sad to contemplate the destruction of sal- 
mon," said the Angler, one day when they had witnessed 
hundreds of these fishes caught in nets and on wheels 
on the Columbia, but could not induce a fish to bite at 
bait or fly. The king salmon undoubtedly lives near 
the mouths of the great rivers or not far out to sea, and 
in the spawning season runs up the streams, instinct 
compelling them to go up to the very head waters, where 
they deposit their eggs and die. The Sacramento, 
Columbia, and Yukon are the principal salmon rivers of 
the coast. Previous to entering these streams the sal- 
mon congregate at the mouths or near by and bite freely ; 



294 THE BOY ANGLERS 

but when they enter the rivers and begin the long swim, 
they have perhaps a journey of one thousand miles before 
them, yet they rarely feed and arrive at the spawning 
grounds in good condition. The male forms, what some 
anglers think, a nest in the gravel, but which in all 
probability is not, and in accomplishing this and fight- 
ing they are badly injured. When the eggs have been 
deposited the male covers them and the fish appear to 
drift down the stream, all dying, few, if any, of the vast 
concourse, in the estimation of expert observers, sur- 
viving. 

The season was well advanced when the anglers 
turned their faces southward and made their way down 
the coast with visions of the vast Yukon and its game 
before their eyes, promised for another outing. 



(1) 



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This book is a history of national flags, standards, banners, emblems, and 
symbols. The American flag is presented first, because every American 
child should know how the flag of his country came to be what it is, and that 
it has always been the flag of a coiintry, not the personal standard of a king 
or of an emperor. 

Our Navy in Time of War. 

By Franklin Matthews. Cloth, 75 cents. 

The leading events of our navy's achievements and their special signifi- 
cance are related in this book, which is designed to interest the young reader 
in historical research No more stirring chapter in our country's history 
could be selected than is contained in the story of the navy from 1861 to 1898. 

Uncle Sam's Secrets. 

A Story of National Affairs for the Youth of the Nation By 
O. P. Austin. 75 cents. 

This volume furnishes to the youth of the land some facts about the 
administrative affairs of the nation— the Post-Office, Treasury, Mint, and 
other functions. Especially useful to the rising generation in stimulating a 
desire to become better informed of the affairs of their country, and to love 
and reverence its institutions. 

Uncle Sam's Soldiers. 

By O. P. Austin. 75 cents. 

The purpose of this story, like the preceding, is instruction, (hough here 
it is confined to military matters, including the organization and handling of 
armies. The story, wliich purports to be the exp rience of two boyc verging 
upon manhood who served in Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines, gives 
the facts regarding modern military methods in a way that can not fail to 
interest. 

Special Gift Edition. 4 vols., i2nio. Colored Illustrations. 
Bound in Handsome Red Cloth, Boxed, $3.50. 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NE'W YORK. 



BY RALPH HENRY BARBOUR. 

The Book of School and College Sports. 

Fully Illustrated. i2mo. Cloth, $1.75 net. 

The author has been assisted in preparing this work by Messrs. Paine, 
Robinson, Schick, Jr., and Abercrombie. The book is thoroughly up to the 
times, and is the most authoritative of its kind. 

Weatherby's Inning. 

A Story of College Life and Baseball. Illustrated in 
Colors by C. M. Relyea. i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 

In this recent book Mr. Barbour tells a story of college life and sport that 
will appeal to readers, old or young, who enjoy a well-written story contain- 
ing interesting characterization and a plot of sufficient mystery to carry the 
attention from page to page with increasing popularity. 

Behind the Line. 

A Story of School and Football. Illustrated by C. M. 
Relyea. i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 

" He writes with a picturesque vigor and a knowledge of his subject." 

— Si. Louis Post-Despatch. 
" For many lads a story like ' Behind the Line' is as good as an outing, or 
as beneficial as a real frolic would be on green fields or gravel campus." 

—Philadelphia Item. 

Captain of the Crew. 

Illustrated by C. M. Relyea. i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 

Mr. Barbour has made himself a master of sport in fiction for young read- 
ers. His new book is one of those fresh, graphic, delightful stories of school 
life that appeal to all healthy boys and girls. He sketches skating and ice- 
boating and track athletics, as well as rowing. 

For the Honor of the School. 

A Story of School Life and Interscholastic Sport. Illus- 
trated by C. M. Relyea. i2mo. Cloth, I1.50. 

"It is a wholesome book, one tingling with health and activity, endeavor 
and laudable ambition to excel in more fields than one." 

— New York Mail and Express. 

The Half-Back. 

Illustrated by B. West Clinedinst. i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 

** It is in every sense an out-and-out boys' book, simple and manly in tone, 
hearty and healthy in its sports, and full of that enthusiasm, life, and fondness 
for games which characterizes the wide-awake, active schoolboy." 

— Boston Herald. 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK. 



APPLETONS' HOME-READING BOOKS* 

Edited by W. T. HARRIS, A. M., LL. D., U. S. Commissioner of Education. 

The purpose of the Home-Reading Books is to provide wholesome, 
instructive, and entertaining reading for young people during the early edu- 
cative period, and more especially through such means to bring the home and 
the school into closer relations and into more thorough cooperation. They 
furnish a great variety of recreative reading for the home, stimulating a 
desire in the young pupil for further knowledge and research, and cultivating 
a taste for good literature that will be of permanent benefit to him. 

Tear. (alphabetically by authors.) Cents. 

7th. Marco Polo. By Edward Atherton 60 

7th. Uncle Sam's Secrets. By O. P. Austin • • • 75 

6th. Uncle Sam's Soldiers. By O. P. Austin . • • 75 

7th. The Story of the Birds. By J. N. Baskett . . 65 

6th. The Story of the Fishes. By J. N. Baskett . . 75 

6th. The Story of the Amphibians and Reptiles. By J. 

N. Baskett and R. L. Ditmars 60 

5th. In Brook and Bayou. By Clara Kern Bayliss . . 60 

5th. Curious Homes and their Tenants. By J. C. Beard . 65 

6th. Historic Boston and its Neighborhood. By E. E. Hale 50 

5th. The Hall of Shells. By Mrs. A. S. Hardy . . 60 

7th. About the Weather. By Mark W. Harrington . . 65 

7th. The Story of Rob Roy. By Edith D. Harris . . 60 

4th. The Earth and Sky. By Edward S. Holden . . 28 

5th. The Family of the Sun. By Edward S. Holden . 50 

6th. Stories of the Great Astronomers. By Edward S. Holden 75 

6th. Our Country's Flag and the Flags of Foreign 

Countries. By Edward S. Holden . . . .80 

5th. News from the Birds. By Leander S. Keyser . . 60 

7th. The Story of Oliver Twist. By Ella B. Kirk . . 60 

6th. Our Navy in Time of War. By Franklin Matthews . 75 

7th. Crusoe's Island. By F. A. Ober 65 

7th. The Storied West Indies. By F. A. Ober . . 75 

6th. Stories from the Arabian Nights. By Adam Singleton 65 

3th. Chronicles of Sir John Froissart. By A. Singleton . 75 

5th. The Plant World. By Frank Vincent ... 60 

6th. The Animal World. By Frank Vincent ... 60 

7th. The Insect World. By C. M. Weed .... 60 
Others in preparation. 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK. 



BY HEZEKI AH BUTTERWORTH. 

Brother Jonathan; or, the Alarm Post in the Cedars. 

A Tale of Early Connecticut. Illustrated. Colored Frontispiece. 
i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 

A stirring tale of the early days of Connecticut, dominated by the forceful per- 
sonality of Jonathan Trumbull, whose name, through its affectionate use by George 
Washington, has become the familiar nickname of the nation that he helped to make. 

In the Days of Audubon. 

A Tale of the " Protector of Birds." Illustrated by B. West Clinedinst 
and others. i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 

In the Days of Jefferson ; or, The Six Golden Horseshoes. 

A Tale of Republican Simplicity. Illustrated by F. T. Merrill. $1.50. 

The Story of Magellan. 

A Tale of the Discovery of the Philippines. Illustrated by F, T. Merrill 
and others. $1.50. 

The Treasure Ship. 

A Story of Sir William Phipps and the Inter-Charter Period in Massa- 
chusetts. Illustrated by B. West Clinedinst and others. $1.50. 

The Pilot of the Mayflower. 

Illustrated by H. Winthrop Peirce and others. $1.50. 

True to his Home. 

A Tale of the Boyhood of Franklin. Illustrated by H. Winthrop Peirce. 
$1.50. 

The Wampum Belt ; or, The Fairest Page of History. 

A Tale of William Penn's Treaty with the Indians. With 6 full-page 
Illustrations. $1.50. 

The Knight of Liberty. 

A Tale of the Fortunes of Lafayette. With 6 full-page Illustrations. 

$1.50. 

The Patriot Schoolmaster, 

A Tale of the Minutemen and the Sons of Liberty. With 6 full-page 
Illustrations by H. Winthrop Peirce. $1.50. 

In the Boyhood of Lincoln. 

A Story of the Black Hawk War and the Tunker Schoolmaster. With 
12 Illustrations and colored Frontispiece. $1.50. 

The Boys of Greenway Court. 

A Story of the Early Years of Washington. With 10 full-page Illustra- 
tions. $1.50. 

The Log School-House on the Columbia. 

With 13 full-page Illustrations by J. Carter Beard, E. J. Austen, and 
others. $1.50. 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK. 



APPLETONS' SUPPLEMENTARY READERS* 



Uncle Robert's Geography. 

By the late Francis W. Parker and Nellie 
L. Helm. A Series of Geographical Readers 
for Supplementary Use. Four volumes. Illus- 
trated. 1 2 mo. Cloth. 

1. Playtime and Seedtime 32, cents, 

2. On the Farm 42 " 

3. Uncle Robert's Visit 50 " 

4. A River Journey 60 *• 

Uncle Robert teaches children how to read aright the great book 
of Nature. He makes study a pleasure. He teaches geography in the 
right way. He makes rural life and occupations attractive. He has a 
deep and loving sympathy with child-life. He believes in the educa- 
tion that strengthens the body as well as the mind. He tells children 
instructive stories to arouse their imaginations and stimulate their 
observing powers. He believes that every normal child may be made 
useful in the world. He has a boundless faith in human progress, and 
finds his greatest hopes in childhood and its possibilities. 

These extraordinarily suggestive little books by the late 
Colonel Parker— one of the most far=sighted students of 
chlld=life of our day —have approved themselves to thousands 
of primary teachers. They form one of the few successful 
attempts to incorporate that which is close by nature to 
child perception into the very warp and woof of the child 
mind. They give an intelligible meaning and vitality to 
the round of experiences that come to all normal children in 
our land. 

D. APPLETON and company, new YORK. 



BY WILLIAM O. STODDARD. 



Each Illustrated. i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 

The Fight for the Valley. 

Colored Frontispiece and other Illustrations. 
A narrative of the brave defence of Fort Schuyler and the battle of Oriskany. 

The Spy of Yorktown. 

Illustrated. Colored Frontispiece. 
A story of the Yorktown campaign and Benedict Arnold. 

With the Black Prince. 

A Story of Adventure in the Fourteenth Century. Illustrated by 
B. West Clinedinst. 

The absorbing interest of this stirring historical romance will appeal to all young 
readers. 

Success Against Odds ; or, How an American Boy made his 
Way. 

Illustrated by B. West Clinedinst. 

In this spirited and interesting storj' Mr. Stoddard tells the adventures of a 
plucky boy who fought his own battles, and made his way upward from poverty in 
a Long Island seashore town. It is a tale of pluck and self-reliance capitally told. 

The Red Patriot. 

A Story of the American Revolution. Illustrated by B. West 
Clinedinst. 

The Windfall ; or. After the Flood. 

Illustrated by B. West Clinedinst. 

Chris, the Model-Maker. 

A Story of New York. With 6 full-page Illustrations by B. West 
Clinedinst. 

On the Old Frontier. 

With ID full-page Illustrations. 

The Battle of New York. 

With II full-page Illustrations and colored Frontispiece. 

Little Smoke. 

A Story of the Sioux Indians. With 12 full-page Illustrations by 
F. S. Dellenbaugh, portraits of Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, and other 
chiefs, and 72 head and tail pieces representing the various imple= 
ments and surroundings of Indian life. 

Crowded Out o' Crofield. 

The Story of a country boy who fought his way to success in the 
great metropolis. With 23 Illustrations by C. T. Hill. 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK. 



ILLUSTRATED JUVENILE STORIES* 

Hermine's Triumphs. 

A Story for Girls and Boys. By Mme. Colomb. With too 
Illustrations. 8vo. Cloth, $1.50. 

The popularity of this charming story of French home-life, which has 
passed through many editions in Paris, has been earned by the sustained 
interest of the narrative, the sympathetic presentation of character, and 
the wholesomeness of the lessons which are suggested. One of the 
most delightful books for girls published in recent years. 

Madeleine's Rescue. 

A Story for Girls and Boys. By Jeanne Schultz, 
Author of "The Story of Colette," "Straight On," etc. 
With Illustrations by Tofani. 8vo. Cloth, $1.00. 

The charmingly sympathetic quality and refined humor of the author 
of "Colette" has never been more happily illustra ed than in this 
picturesque story of a girl and her boy friends — a story which grown 
people as well as children will read with keen delight. 

King Tom and the Runaways. 

By Louis Pendleton, Author of '* In the Wire Grass." 
Illustrated. i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 

A tale of the strange experiences of two boys in the forests and 
swamps of Georgia, in which are described some remarkable adventures 
in a little-known region. 

Little Peter. 

A Christmas Morality for Children of any Age. By 
Lucas Malet, Author of " Colonel Enderby's Wife," etc. 
With numerous Illustrations by Paul Hardy. i2mo. Cloth, 

$1.25. 

The story of a little boy and his cat, his friend, a misshapen charcoal 
burner, and life in the pine forest, with the myths and legends, the 
superstitions and quaint fancies of an earlier day. A book that will 
delight the little folk of a winter's evening. 

We All. 

A Story of Outdoor Life and Adventure in Arkansas. 
By Octave Thanet. With 12 full-page Illustrations by 
E. J. Austin and others. 8vo. Cloth, $1.50. 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK. 



STORIES FOR YOUNG READERS. 

The Exploits of Myles Standish. 

By Henry Johnson (Muirhead Robertson), Author of 
" From Scrooby to Plymouth Rock," etc. Illustrated. 
i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 

The story of " The Exploits of Myles Standish " throws a clearer light upon 
a heroic figure in our earliest history, and it has an epic quality which will 
appeal to old and young. While the facts of history are presented, the author 
has adroitly reconstructed the little-known earlier years of Standish's life, 
basing his imaginative work upon the probabilities of history. 

John Boyd's Adventures. 

By Thomas W. Knox, Author of "The Boy Travelers," 
etc. With 12 full-page Illustrations by W. S. Stacey. i2mo. 
Cloth, $1.50. 

John was a hero of the days when American sailors manned American 
ships, and the ships went everywhere, in spite of pirates and hostile Frenchmen 
and Englishmen. He went to sea in the early part of the century, and his 
adventures as an Algerine slave, a man-of-war's-man, an intended victim of 
Chinese pirates, and as a young hero in other stirring scenes, almost encircle 
the globe, and enable the author to convey much information regarding strange 
peoples and countries and the history of troublous times. 

The Crystal Hunters, 

A Boy's Adventures in the Higher Alps. By G. Man- 
viLLE Fenn. Profusely Illustrated. i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 

This is an animated account of the experience of a boy who explored the 
crevasses and caves of the Alps in search of crystals. The story has a well- 
sustained interest throughout, and is replete with anecdotes and information of 
a most fascinating and picturesque country. 

Syd Belton, the Boy who would not go to Sea. 

By G. Manville Fenn. i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 

A thrilling story of adventure that cannot fail to interest and instruct the 
youthful readers whose tastes the author so well understands. An excellent 
book to place in a boy's hands. 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK. 



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